London’s leading shares index exploded into life today after US jobs figures smashed expectations and boosted recovery hopes for the world’s largest economy.
The FTSE 100 Index closed on a fresh six-month high, up 1.8% or 105 points at 5,901.1 after the US Labor Department said companies hired 243,000 employees in January.
The renewed optimism saw strong gains for banking stocks and saw heavily-weighted mining stocks bounce back to the black.
Barclays was up 9.6p at 237.5p and Lloyds Banking Group rose 1.7p to 34.4p, while Royal Bank of Scotland added 0.3p to 28.7p.
Commodity stocks clawed back into positive territory with Rio Tinto climbing 7.5p to £39.88 and BHP Billiton lifting 11.5p to 2,206.5p.
Elephant, Diamond and Confused insurance firm Admiral topped the blue-chip risers board after it announced the extension of contracts with reinsurers such as Hannover and Swiss Re until 2014. Shares were 76p higher at £10.38, a rise of 8%.
Telecoms firm BT was also 4% or 8.1p higher at 214p after third quarter results showing an 18% rise in underlying profits to £628million impressed traders.
Outside the top flight, shares in Game Group jumped by 22% or 1.2p to 6.5p after its lenders agreed new banking facilities, while banking software provider Misys added 4.1p to 329.6p after announcing it was in talks with rival Temenos about a possible merger.
The biggest Footsie risers included Man Group ahead 9.9p at 136.7p and Smiths up 57p at £10.17.
The biggest Footsie fallers were Petrofac down 21p at £14.74, BG Group off 7p at £14.25 and Polymetal down 5p at £11.65.
Stuart Lamont, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted Aggreko which rose 2.71% to £21.62, SSE up 2.45% at £12.52 and Standard Life which took 2.18% to finish at 229.3p.
Among the laggards, Faroe Petroleum eased 0.74% to 168.75p.
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