UK's FTSE 100 Clocks Best Annual Performance Since 2009

Britain's FTSE 100 has clocked its best annual performance since 2009 after rising 14.4% on the year at provisionally 6746.40.

The FTSE 100 celebrates its 30th anniversary in January. At its peak it clocked up 6950.6 points on 30 December, 1999, which remains an end-of-day all-time high.

"As is to be expected, the index has moved into a very narrow trading range, which is normal ahead of a holiday, and while this might not offer the swings/volatility that short-term traders might want to see, it does offer the possibility that this pause is serving as a consolidation of the recent 5.9% recovery from 6395," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets.

"If this is the case, there could be legs in the rally and potential as we pointed to yesterday for an early January revisit of the 6820 levels of end-October before an assault on the all-time high of 6940 after which it could join its peers who have been making new records for weeks if not months."

Global Indexes

Quantitative easing, or ultra-easy monetary policies, helped boost indexes around the world.

In the US, the market was on track for its best year since 1997 with a 29% gain, while European shares rose by 16%.

Japan's Nikkei 225 soared by 56.7%.

The MSCI's all-country world equity index hit its highest level since late 2007 at 407.65 while FTSEurofirst 300 is on course for its best year since 2009 after hitting 1,315.09 points.