Market Summary: 6th May 2011

By Huw Jones

Market numbersIts been a busy week in the aftermath of the Royal Wedding. The Bank of England’s MPC decided to maintain interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%.  Lloyds Banking Group has announced they are setting aside £3.2bn to cover compensation claims as a result of PPI mis-selling. One piece of good news was the announcement that the UK economy grew by 0.5% thereby stopping the double-dip recession in its’ tracks – for the time being.

The FTSE All Share index, representing the performance of all 623 eligible companies listed on the London Stock Exchange has finished the week at 3,109.63, an increase of 27.21 points. However over the week the index has shed 45.40 points from its opening of 3,155.03 at the start of trading on Tuesday.

So far this year the FTSE All Share index, which accounts for approximately 98% of the UK’s market capitalisation, has gone up 46.78 points from its’ opening price of 3062.85 at the start of trading on 4th January 2011.