Updates from National Grid, Reckitt Benckiser and Hiscox

The optimism continued on Friday: the FTSE 100 climbed +0.97% to 5,627 points. The biggest climber was Barclays, up +8.72%, while Pearson was the sharpest faller, down -4.85%.

Today, Asian shares kept up Friday's advance with the Nikkei up +0.7% while the Hang Seng jumped +1.2%. Much of the uplift is attributed to (thought likely) more ECB bond purchases.