Market Overview: FTSE 100 smashes past the 700 market for the first time

1630 (Close): The FTSE 100 broke past the 7000 level for the first time in its history, finishing the session at 7022.51.
The London benchmark advanced on receding Greek exit fears and dovish central banks. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it would wait to raise interest rates until it sees further improvement in the labour market while the Bank of England’s Andy Haldane alluded to the possibility of cutting rates if necessary. EU leaders, meanwhile, continued to assert that they wanted Greece to remain part of the euro but urged the nation's government to act swiftly on more solid reforms in order to unlock further aid. Greek Prime Minister Alexi Tsipras was on Friday reportedly expected to present a detailed final list of reforms. Company-wise Vedanta surged on market chatter of Indian industrial magnate Anil Agarwal, who currently owns a 61.7% controlling interest in the group, increasing his stake.

1552: Some more colour on Vedanta: Traders note of vague and unconfirmed market chatter that Anil Agarwal, the Indian industrial magnate is looking to increase his shareholding in Vedanta. Agarwal currently owns a 61.7% controlling interest in Vedanta through his investment vehicle, Volcan Investments.

1528: Shares in Vedanta pop 22% higher. The company's chief says there is no rationale for a $3.3bn cash charge on Cairn India. “They're not going to book a charge for the tax charge in India, which the company has indicated it's confident it will be able to get dropped or reduced. Crucially, Vedanta hasn't didn't make a capital gain on the transfer from Cairn Energy since essentially it was just a name change. India's revenue service probably overplayed its hand,” a trader explained to Sharecast. There also appears to be some 'market chatter' doing the rounds about a possible bid.

1528: Shares in Vedanta pop 22% higher. The company's chief says there is no rationale for a $3.3bn cash charge on Cairn India. “They're not going to book a charge for the tax charge in India, which the company has indicated it's confident it will be able to get dropped or reduced. Crucially, Vedanta hasn't didn't make a capital gain on the transfer from Cairn Energy since essentially it was just a name change. India's revenue service probably overplayed its hand,” a trader explained to Sharecast. There also appears to be some 'market chatter' doing the rounds about a possible bid.

1514: Alea jacta est! The Footsie has stepped over the 7,000 point mark for the first ever.

1446: Centamin has been downgraded by Nomura to reduce from buy. Acting as a backdrop, the Obama administration is today expected to unveil regulations for the fracking industry.

1356: The yield on 10-year Greek sovereign bonds is now off by 44 basis points to 11.19%.

1355: On Wednesday the Dubai National Oil company made what looks like an opportunistic bid for Turkmenistan-focused Dragon Oil. Its last bid came in 2009. Is someone calling a bottom in the oil market. If so, then the event might be imminent.

1105: Shares in recruiter Michael Page are trading below their average mid-cycle earnings multiples and analysts’ estimates have now come down to sensible levels. Hence, owning stock in the later-cycle staffer “makes sense” to Morgan Stanley analysts Toby W Reeks and Allen D Wells, as they explained in a research note e-mailed to clients.

1033: Credit Suisse upped its target on the S&P 500 by 20 basis points to 2,170 for year-end 2015. As an aside, it adds: "GEM currencies in some instances look cheap (Russian rouble, South African rand) on our FX scorecard (or at least in the case of the Real, no longer clearly expensive). The problem is that the RmB still looks expensive. We would use any post-Fed bounce as a selling opportunity for stocks with exposure to commodity-exporting current account deficit GEM countries."

1030: This is Westhouse on Tullow today: "With roughly $1.2bn of net capex on TEN to be spent pre-first oil, Tullow has plenty of liquidity to make it to first oil and we forecast that Tullow will be free cash flow positive in 2017, once TEN production has reached plateau. This is a positive update and we believe that the increase in funding facilities is a testament to Tullow's low-cost, high-margin production which is set to increase by over 60% between 2015 and 2017."

1028: Enquest and Ithaca Energy will benefit particularly from the measures announced in the Budget to benefit oil explorers in the North Sea, says West House Securities.

0940: Shares in CRH are now leading gains on the Footsie and heading back to the year's highs at 1,870p.

826: The top flight index has begun the morning inching higher, with gains in Shanghai offsetting a mixed close to trading on Wall Street. Overnight, Greece agreed to provide a list of reforms to its international creditors. Despite this, the yield on 10-year Greek bonds was higher by 27 points to 12.12%. The BoJ minutes released overnight have proved uneventful, traders said. Tullow is leading gains early on after clinching access to £450m in fresh financing. CRH is another big mover after Holcim and Lafarge last night agreed to revised terms for their merger. TSB has started up by 3% after agreeing to be bought by Banco Sabadell. FTSE 100 up 17 points to 6,962.32.