THERE was no disguising the profound relief around the City's trading desks yesterday as London's stock market, along with the rest of global markets, signalled its approval of the latest US economic data.
That approval was followed by a general advance by British share prices, and provided the catalyst for a move to all-time intra-day and closing highs for all the FTSE indices.
The creation of 339,000 jobs in the US during February, coupled with what were viewed by economists as manageable numbers for hourly earnings, saw US bonds tremble for a short while and prompted an early bout of uncertainty on Wall Street.
But both markets quickly shrugged off their initial worries and made rapid progress thereafter, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average once again piercing the 7,000 level and posting a 50- point gain an hour after trading halted in London.
The FTSE 100 index ended the week comfortably above the 4,400 level, finishing 21.0 up at 4,420.3, a new closing high, having hit a new intra-day peak of 4,420.7 minutes before the close.
The FTSE Mid-250 index pushed up 6.3 to a new closing record of 4,713.8, after hitting an intra-day peak of 4,318.9. The SmallCap, meanwhile, rose 2.6 to an all-time closing and intra-day high of 2,362.7.
Over the week Footsie rose 112 points, or 2.6 per cent.
