FTSE records 5.7% annual gain as aviation stocks fly

Britain's blue-chip stock index has recorded its strongest annual gain since 2021, after lagging behind Wall Street over the past year.

- Graeme Wearden

The FTSE 100 index, which tracks the largest companies listed in London, posted a rise of 5.7% for 2024.

Having begun the year at 7,733 points, the FTSE closed 440 points higher at 8,173 points on 31 December.

That was its fourth year of gains in a row, after rising 14.3% in 2021, 0.9% in 2022 and 3.8% in 2023, after a 14.3% plunge in 2020 when the Covid pandemic rocked markets. But London's lack of major technology companies meant it struggled to keep up with New York, where the S&P 500 gained more than 23% this year.

Last year began strongly for the FTSE 100, which hit an all-time high of 8,474 points in May. The second half of 2024 was less promising - with a brief plunge in August amid global market mayhem, and weakening in December as investors fretted that sticky inflation would hamper the Federal Reserve from cutting US interest rates often in 2025.