london's benchmark FTSE 100 index hit its highest levels on record today, beating previous peaks reached in December 1999 during the Internet boom. The FTSE 100 hit a record at 6,958.89 points nearing the end of the day's trade and after the eurozone had backed a four-month extension to Greece's financial lifeline.
It went on to reach a record close at 6,949.63 points after rising 0.54 per cent compared with today's finish. "After 15 years of market ups and downs since the peak of the dotcom boom, the FTSE 100 did it, a new all-time high," said Jasper lawler, analyst at traders CMC Markets UK.
The index has been rising steadily for months, helped by central bank stimulus and improvements to the British and US economies that have offset weakness in China and eurozone strains. Indices on Wall Street have already struck record-highs this year. A recovery to commodity prices has meanwhile boosted share prices in heavyweight mining companies traded on the FTSE index of 100 companies.
The index includes companies ranging from energy giants BP and Shell to banks HSBC and Barclays as well as miner Rio Tinto, mobile phone group Vodafone, British Airways-parent IAG and pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline. "The current level of the FTSE is underpinned by company profits to a much greater extent than it was in 1999," said laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves lansdown stockbrokers.