U.S. follows Britain to buy up bank shares as FTSE and global stock markets soar

FTSE up 4% in early trading as bank shares climb World markets soared today as the U.S. prepared to follow Britain's lead and announce a £150billion plan to buy up bank shares to shore up its crippled economy. The FTSE-100 was up 4.7 per cent by mid-morning after Wall Street posted its biggest one-day gain since 1933 last night. French and German shares also extended their gains from yesterday and there were huge rises in Asia, Australia, Indonesia and Russia. Investor confidence appears to have returned thanks to Gordon Brown's bail-out which was copied in several countries across Europe yesterday. It has been boosted still further by America's plans to adopt a similar recapitalisation scheme, which is expected to be announced later today. Iceland was the one exception as its shares plunged a massive 76 per cent on its first... [read full story]