Leading shares have made a positive end to the week, mainly due to growing hopes of a cut in US interest rates.
The FTSE 100 closed 83.4 points higher at 6432.5, a 170 point rise on the week. Updates from the likes of Barclays, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley went some way to reassure the market, although there are still major concerns about the long-term effects of the US sub-prime crisis and the credit crunch.
Although most economists reckon an interest rate cut by the Bank of England next week is in the balance, there is a growing belief that the US Federal Reserve will lower rates on December 11 after comments yesterday from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.
Banks were among the major risers today, with Standard Chartered up 6.5% and Alliance & Leicester ahead by a similar amount. Miners such as Vedanta Resources and Anglo American were lifted by takeover speculation, while Colt Telecom held much of its gains after a Guardian report that AT&T could be interested in the company. It closed up 18% at 182.25p despite Colt saying it knew of no reason for the share price rise.
