FTSE blog: Banks and miners lead the way as FTSE 100 passes 5,800

6 August 2012 | By Chris Salih

The FTSE 100 has passed 5,800 as investors continued to look to riskier assets on the back of Friday’s strong US jobs data.

At close, the FTSE 100 was up 0.4 per cent to stand at 5808.77 with banks and miners making the largest gains. Royal Bank of Scotland Group made the biggest gains rising by 6 per cent, with Evraz, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp, CRH and Barclays all up by more than 3 per cent.

The gains continued from Friday when a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed that 163,000 workers were added to US non-farm payrolls during July. This increased from the 64,000 jobs created in June and an improvement in the 100,000 expected by analysts.

European markets also rose with the French Cac and the German Dax up 0.8 per cent. The Madrid IBEX rose 4.4 per cent, while the Eurofirst 300 climbed 0.6 per cent higher.

The improvements in Europe came as traders continued to draw comfort from European Central Bank head Mario Draghi’s pledge to help borrowing costs of struggling nations. Spain and Italy have both seen their 10-year government bond yields fall with Spain’s at 6.74 per cent and Italy’s around the 6 per cent mark.

In the US, the Dow Jones has made a strong start having risen 0.6 per cent at 17.08 BST, while the Nasdaq increased by 0.9 per cent.

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