The FTSE 100 yesterday pushed to its highest close since the days before Lehman Brothers’ collapse, after good company news cheered investors.

Britain’s blue-chip index closed up 19.88 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,296.38, its best close since September 12, the final trading day before Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on September 15, triggering fears over the US financial system and sending Wall Street into meltdown.

HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, put a positive spin on Friday the 13th yesterday, rising by 1.2 per cent and adding the most points to the index on talk that it would raise its dividend.

Outside the UK, Richemont said that net profit for the six months to September 30 was down 53 per cent to €400 million. But the company, which makes Cartier and other luxury brands, said that the rate of decline in its sales had slowed to 10 per cent in October from 15 per cent in the first half, which was read by analysts as a positive sign for the forthcoming gift-buying season.

Yesterday the European Union said that the 16-country eurozone had emerged from recession in the third quarter. This did not give much impetus to markets, however, because the zone’s 0.4 per cent increase in gross domestic profit was lower than the 0.5 per cent expected by economists.

US markets were hit by a fall in the Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers to 66 points in November, down from 70.6 last month — the lowest since August.

Investors also had to contend with an 18.2 per cent increase in the trade deficit to $36.5 billion, which was higher than the $31.7 million economists had expected.

But they took hope from Abercrombie & Fitch’s 39 per cent sales fall in the third quarter, which was less terrible than expected, and JP Penney’s upgraded profit and sales outlook.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 73 points at 10,270.47 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed up 6.24 points at 1,093.48.

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