THG receives buyout proposal from private equity, FTSE 100 posts best run since December 2020 – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as UK's blue-chip index heads for seventh day of gains in a row

European stock markets are also moving higher this morning, with Germany's DAX up 0.16% and Italy's FTSE MIB gaining 0.25%.

Pierre Veyret, technical analyst at ActivTrades, explains:

European shares openened on a positive note, following the lead of Asian benchmarks, as risk appetite remains strong at the beginning of this new week.

The bullish sentiment continues and investors may be willing to push stock indexes to new highs, despite lingering concerns over higher borrowing rates and economic recession. This sustained appetite for riskier assets may come from the fact some investors see the current monetary tightening cycle to be closer to the end than the beginning, while expecting a shallower recession than initially anticipated.

Certainly that's good news for the Bank of England, and it does make the May decision a really close call."