ALL the main British stock market indices hit new all-time highs yesterday, although there was a distinct lack of conviction in the leaders which came off their best levels as profit-takers moved in.
Nevertheless, the excellent news on inflation, published on Thursday, and the widespread relief at the chancellor's decision not to increase British interest rates, propelled the FT-SE 100 index through the 4,200 level.
As ever, Wall Street's latest power-packed performance helped to instill further confidence in European markets, where London was one of many to post new closing and intra-day records. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up 38 points overnight and continued to make strong progress at the outset of trading yesterday, rushing through the 6,800 level.
And turnover in equities shot up, boosted substantially by a big bought deal involving Guinness shares, which saw LVMH, the French company sell a 7 per cent block of shares to Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, which placed them in the market.
The FT-SE 100 Index rose 151.1, or 3.7 per cent, over the week, while the 250 index gained 75.6, or 1.7 per cent, and the SmallCap 53.3, or 2.4 per cent.
Turnover at the 6 p.m. count was 1.23 billion shares, with Guinness accounting for almost 22 per cent of the overall total.
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