Market hopes as Footsie recovers losses
Investors were hoping for another good day today after the FTSE 100 Index hauled itself out of the doldrums yesterday to produce the market’s biggest rise in percentage terms since October 1987.
On another day of volatility, the Footsie surged 199.9 points to 3486.9 after putting back all of Wednesday’s losses – and adding 30 points on top of that.
In New York, Wall Street closed last night to record its best day in five months as the Dow Jones industrials surged nearly 270 points and the Nasdaq composite index soared by more than 60 on investor hopes that a US war with Iraq would be short and successful.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index scored its the second best day of 2003. But the rally was also an expected rebound following weeks of selling.
In London yesterday, analysts said buyers had been lured back by cheap looking stocks although most experts were taken aback by the scale of the recovery.
Tom Hougaard of financial bookmakers City Index said: “This was the most encouraging close I could have imagined.”
Investors had feared more losses after uncertainty over Iraq drove the FTSE 100 Index to its lowest point since June 1995.
But there were reports the heavy losses had been caused by one institution dumping shares after seeing the Footsie fall below a certain point.
Peter Cogliatti, of brokers Williams de Broe, said it was clear that the sell-off had been overdone.
“There was nothing on Wednesday to warrant such a fall. It looks like it was just down to selling into an unreceptive market.”
However, he said the future direction of the market still remained unclear.
