Can the FTSE 100 keep going past 6,000?

Can the FTSE 100 keep going now that it has breached 6,000? Or is it time for smart investors to bank some of their gains?

Do you remember 1 April 1998? Probably not, says Bryce Elder in The Times. But you ought to it was the first time the FTSE 100 closed above the 6,000-point level. Yet two weeks later, it was back to 5,700, "on worries that the strength of the American economy would trigger a hike in interest rates". The FTSE "bounced against" 6,000 until falling below the "plimsoll line" on February 20, 2001. It had not reached those levels again until last week.

In July 2003, the FTSE hit its low of 3,227 so what has caused it to rise by over 85% in the last three years? One factor, says Elder, is mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. Takeovers have pushed the market ever upwards.

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Annunziata Rees-Mogg

Annunziata was a deputy editor at MoneyWeek, covering financial markets, politics, economics and comment pieces. She then went on to the Daily Telegraph as a lead writer where she wrote a column on young women’s financial issues. She was briefly a member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region in the UK as part of the Conservative Party.  Annunziata continues to write  as a freelance journalist.