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The FTSE 100 jumped on Friday, completing its longest ever run of consecutive days in the green.
London’s blue-chip index ended the day well into positive territory, rising 99.55 points to finish the day at 8,596.35, a 1.17% rise.
It marked 15 days of consecutive gains for the market, after investors were buoyed by the Chinese government indicating that it is open to trade talks with the US.
China’s commerce ministry said on Friday: “The US has recently taken the initiative on many occasions to convey information to China through relevant parties, saying it hopes to talk with China.”
More widely, the winning streak is part of a longer-term recovery after markets were pummelled at the start of the month by Donald Trump’s announcement of global trade tariffs.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown: “The FTSE 100 has significantly more power in reserve and could have further to run, given that the index has not yet regained the record levels reached in March.
“However, uncertainty over US trade policy and the extent of the effect on the global economy is likely to put a lid on further gains.”
Elsewhere, Germany’s Dax rose 2.49% and France’s Cac 40 rose 2.33%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was up 1.6% as European markets were closing, while the Dow Jones was up 1.41%.
Sterling was roughly level against the dollar at 1.3286, while it was 0.3% down against the euro at 1.1726.
In company news, Marks & Spencer said it is “working day and night” to manage the impact of a damaging cyber attack.
Stuart Machin, chief executive of the high street giant, said he is “really sorry” customers have been affected by the fallout from the attack.
The retailer is currently unable to process any online orders after shutting down parts of its online systems to deal with a “cyber incident”.
M&S first reported the issue over the Easter weekend but has seen its operations impacted for more than a week.
Shares fell 2.1% on Friday.
Meanwhile, NatWest revealed its profit jumped by more than a third in recent months as the bank said its customers were “resilient” against “increased global economic uncertainty”.
The boss of the banking group said confidence had dropped among households and businesses but behaviour had not changed.
NatWest Group, which also incorporates Royal Bank of Scotland and Coutts, reported an operating pre-tax profit of £1.8 billion for the first three months of 2025.
This was 36% higher than the £1.3 billion made this time last year and exceeded the expectations of analysts for the quarter.