FTSE 100 rally may persist despite mounting economic pressures for the UK

Blue-chip index nears all-time high

The forces that drove the FTSE 100’s gains in 2022 and are fuelling the current market rally may remain in place this year, with old economy and value stocks potentially benefiting the UK market once more, despite the country’s economic pressures.

In 2022, the FTSE 100 index delivered a return of 4.7%, outperforming the more domestically driven FTSE 250 index by 22%, the biggest margin on record, according to FE fundinfo data. It was not just the domestic indices it bested, but its international peers, surpassing the returns of the FTSE All Share (0.3%), S&P 500 (-19.4%) and the Nasdaq 100 (-33%), over the same time frame. FTSE 100 nears record high Much of this was driven by the FTSE 100's overweight to oil and gas and commodities versus the more technology-biased indices, which saw the former benefit from spiking oil price...