FTSE 100

The FTSE climbed 0.9%, or 49 points this morning, boosted by British Airways and mining stocks.

The FTSE traded 56 points, or 1%, lower this morning at 5705.49 after a downbeat assessment of the US recovery from former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.

Broker downgrades and companies going ex-dividend pulled the FTSE index 25 points, or 0.4% lower this morning.

The FTSE 100 was marginally up in early trading, by 0.06% or 3.41 points to 5,748, only a few hours before the Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to call a General Election for 6 May.

I spend much of my time scrutinising the post-modern equivalent of tea leaves - value-based fundamental measures of the aggregate market alongside technical and liquidity-driven metrics.

As information moves faster, and advisers and product providers identify market trends more quickly, investors have to be quick to catch the nano-second before an exciting opportunity and considered strategy becomes a bubble.

The FTSE rose by 0.3%, or 14 points, to 5686.32 this morning, buoyed by fighting talk from British Sky Broadcasting.

Mining stocks led the FTSE 100 up 25.69 points (0.45%) to 5,736.35 in early trading after the weaker dollar boosted gold prices.

Telecoms groups and miners including Rio Tinto helped the FTSE 100 off to a good start, up 16.37 (0.29%) to 5,719.39.

Hargreave Hale plans to use rules that governed the VCT sector prior to April 2006 when making new qualifying investments for its two AIM VCTs.