Worst FTSE year on record ends with positive session

The worst year on record for London’s FTSE 100 Index ended today with a positive session for blue-chip stocks.

Despite the 41.5 points improvement to 4434.2, the Footsie was still down by 31% over the course of 2008 – its biggest fall since launching 24 years ago.

The credit crunch, housing market slump and banking crisis have combined to wipe many billions of pounds from the value of the Footsie, which started the year at 6456.9.

The fall was also the second biggest annual slide of all time, only overshadowed by the 55.3% fall for the FTSE All-Share seen in 1974.

Banking stocks have been the biggest casualties in the slump but rallied during the final session of the year. Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays were 1.2p up at 49.4p and 4.4p ahead at 153.4p respectively. Asian-facing bank Standard Chartered was one of the session’s best performers after an improvement of 41p to 875p.

Mobile phone giant Vodafone joined the banks on the risers board for the final shortened session, which took place amid thin trading volumes. The heavily weighted stock rose 2.9p to 139p after investment bank Credit Suisse issued a “trading buy” on the telecoms group.

The biggest gain came from transport firm FirstGroup, which was ahead 20.5p at 434p, a rise of 5%. Insurance firm Prudential added 16.75p to 416.5p, but rival Aviva was one of the leading fallers after a drop of 4%, or 17.75p to 390p.

Gold mining firm Randgold Resources, which bucked the Footsie’s gloom over the year with a rise of 60%, was down 44p to 2948p. Vedanta Resources capped an otherwise miserable year for the mining sector with a fall of 47.5p to 611.5p, down 7%.