London shares posted strong gains on Tuesday as Wall Street set an all-time high for intraday trades after the US Federal Reserve reaffirmed its aggressive stimulus policy.
London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies jumped by 1.36 percent to close at 6,431.95 points.
In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to a record high in midday trading, surpassing a level set more than five years ago.
The Dow jumped to 14,275.96 points, a gain of 1.05 percent that put it well past the previous intraday high of 14,198.10 set on October 11, 2007.
The broad S&P 500 index was up by 1.03 percent and the Nasdaq Composite of high-tech stocks had gained 1.21 percent.
In the United States, “a run of better-than-estimated economic data has overshadowed concern over federal spending cuts known as the Sequesters,” ETX Capital analyst Ishaq Siddiqi noted.
CMC Markets counterpart Michael Hewson added that “despite continued lousy economic data, from Europe in particular, investors continue to take comfort from the fact that the Federal Reserve looks set to keep its foot hard on the stimulus pedal.”
Serco — a British government service company –was the star performer as its shares soared by 8.89% — or 51.50 pence — to close at 630.5 pence.
The John Wood Group was also in demand and the oil giant saw its shares soar by 7.92% — or 60 pence — to close at 818 pence.
Intu Properties PLC was the biggest faller, as the property investment trust, saw its shares plummet by 1.50% — or 0.11 pence — to close at 334 pence.
Admiral Group was also under heavy selling pressure and shares in the insurance group fell back by 0.71% — or 0.71 pence — to close at 1267 pence.
On the currency markets, sterling fell back to $1.5100 at 5:34pm from $1.511 at the same time on Monday, and also slipped to 1.1600 euros from 1.1604 euros over the same period.
London stocks jump on Fed comments
