FTSE at highest level for 18 months

The FTSE 100 Index touched fresh 18-month highs today as better-than-expected US unemployment figures boosted sentiment.

London's blue-chip share index gained 1.3% to 5599.8, pushing above the psychologically important 5600 level several times in afternoon trading and hitting a high of 5605.4 at one point.

The Footsie has risen more than 10% in a month in its latest winning streak and is now nearly 60% higher than its low a year ago, when markets were thrown into panic amid fears of financial meltdown.

Financial firms and miners led the way today, with Asian-facing bank Standard Chartered and silver specialist Fresnillo both ending the session 4% ahead.

US data propelled the session's gains, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average also up 0.8%.

Markets were soothed by figures showing the US unemployment rate held at 9.7% in February as employers shed 36,000 jobs, fewer than economists had expected.

Snowstorms which ravaged parts of the country during the month were thought likely to have inflated job losses and without the bad weather economists said there might have been a net jobs increase for only the second time since the US recession began two years ago.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said: "The upshot was a fresh injection of confidence all round, highlighted by the FTSE's move back above 5600 for the first time since the summer of 2008.

"The evidence suggests, therefore, that the 12-month recovery in share prices is still going strong.

"After an initially uncertain start to the year, and debt concerns in Europe to contend with, investors still clearly feel there are yet more gains to come from share prices."

But stock market historian David Schwartz said signs of a close-run vote in the UK general election presented "high odds of trouble" for the market in the coming months.

"I think it is short-lived really and my opinion is that it is going to run out of steam very shortly," he said.

"The uncertainty associated with the election is eventually going to hurt shares over the next few months."

However, Mr Schwartz said overall the market was likely to stay bullish for at least another year.