Euro high hopes gives FTSE 100 a lift

Hopes for a turnaround in Europe’s economic fortunes cheered investors today as the FTSE 100 Index rallied to within 100 points of its record level.

The trigger for the improvement came from Germany after it emerged that the country grew by a much better than expected 0.7% in the final three months of last year, leading to growth of 1.6% across 2014.