FTSE 100 enjoys biggest monthly gain in six years

FTSE 100 enjoys biggest monthly gain in six years

UK stocks posted their biggest monthly gain in six years, as banks and commodity producers rallied on optimism the worst of the recession may be over.

Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays jumped 13.6pc and 9.7pc respectively as Anthony Bolton, Fidelity International's veteran equity investor, said financial shares are set to rally and ignite an equity bull market.

Kazakhmys, the mining company, rose 4.7pc after reporting an increase in production and as copper climbed. BG Group. the oil explorer, advanced after reporting better-than-expected results.

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The FTSE 100 climbed 54.12, or 1.3pc, to 4,243.71 in London. The index of leading shares has risen 8.1pc this month, the biggest advance since 2003. The FTSE All-Share Index rose 1.4 percent today.

The market is “positive for an economic turnaround”, said Joshua Raymond, a London-based market strategist at City Index.

“All major sectors are higher today so the buying we have seen has been broad and this is indicative of investor sentiment at the moment.”

The UK benchmark has rebounded 21pc from its low this year on March 3, trimming this year decline to 4.3pc, as investors speculate the pace of the economic slowdown is easing. UK consumer confidence climbed to the highest level in a year in April while a separate report today showed house prices fell 0.4pc this month, less than economists had forecast.

Bolton, president of investments at Fidelity, said that low valuations indicate recent gains that began in March are the start of a bull market. He favors financials, consumer cyclical, technology and “value stocks,” such as retailers, automakers and construction-related shares.

“All the things are in place for the bear market to have ended,” Mr Bolton said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/5252022/FTSE-100-enjoys-biggest-monthly-gain-in-six-years.html