HSBC Holdings Share News (HSBA)

After a relatively subdued start on the FTSE 100, stocks surged in afternoon trade as comments from the Chairman of the Federal Reserve pushed the index to fresh 13-year highs.The benchmark index extended its impressive year-to-date rise to nearly 16% today after Ben Bernanke initiated a dovish tone in his testimony to Congress as he answered questions about the Fed's easy monetary policy. The Footsie is now coming close to the all-time closing high of 6,930.2 reached on December 30th 1999. Bernanke began by saying that the Fed would not prematurely scale back its asset purchase programme for risk of endangering the economic recovery. He said that the outlook still remains uncertain given the weak labour market and high levels of unemployment, while inflation is still low.He said that a highly accommodative stance will remain appropriate "for a considerable time after the asset purchase programme ends and the economic recovery strengthens".However, he did hint that a scaling back of quantitative easing (QE) measures could happen "in the next few meetings" if the Fed sees a sustained improvement in the economy.Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that Bernanke's "incredible U-turn" over a potential 'tapering' this afternoon means markets will be "extremely sensitive to any comments from Fed officials as well as economic data releases in the coming months"."We should now see a strong return to the kind of moves seen before the announcement of QE3, with positive data prompting selling in equities and a strong dollar, and weak data prompting the opposite reaction," Erlam said.Retail sales, BoE, JapanStocks started the day lower after UK retail sales fell sharply in April as the poor weather continued to lead shoppers to forego purchases of seasonal goods, although food price inflation seems to have been a factor as well. Sales volumes fell by 1.3% month-on-month, worse than the 0.6% drop the month before, disappointing analysts who had actually expected a 0.1% increase.Traders also kept a close eye on the minutes from the latest Monetary Policy Committee meeting in the UK which showed that Bank of England policymakers voted unanimously to keep the Bank Rate at 0.5% and six-to-three in favour of maintaining its current quantitative easing (QE) programme, as expected. Economists are now questioning whether incoming Governor Mark Carney will introduce new measures designed to boost growth when he takes up his new position in July.Overnight saw the latest policy decision from Japan, where officials decided to stick with their ultra-loose monetary policy measures, as expected. The Bank of Japan did however saw that its move to double its monetary base within two years to achieve a 2.0% inflation rate was starting to work and the economy has "started picking up".FTSE 100: Banks rise after playing down capital concernsPart-nationalised peers Lloyds and RBS were in demand today after reassuring markets that they would meet new heavier capital requirements without the need to fund-raise. Barclays and HSBC also performed well with the latter benefitting from a target-price upgrade by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Chip designer ARM Holdings was under pressure following its investor day earlier this week as a number of brokers (including Morgan Stanley, Espirito Santo and Liberum Capital) choose to remain cautious on the name given the stock's expensive valuation. Shares in Morrison were falling sharply after UBS confirmed that it had placed around 100m shares in the supermarket stock on behalf of an institutional seller at 280p each, well below yesterday's closing price of 289.3p.Engineering firm Rolls-Royce edged higher after winning an engine order from CIT Aerospace to power 10 Airbus XWB aircraft and 13 Airbus A330 aircraft.FTSE 250: Britvic jumps as profits riseSoft drinks group Britvic gained after serving up a strong set of interim results, with pre-tax profit rising from £24.8m to £37.5m in the 28 weeks to April 15th. Intermediate Capital was another high riser after unveiling record assets under management in 2012/13 and saying that realisations were picking up after subdued activity last year.FTSE 100 - RisersAntofagasta (ANTO) 1,002.00p +3.94%Barclays (BARC) 333.85p +3.26%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,485.50p +2.68%easyJet (EZJ) 1,285.00p +2.64%ITV (ITV) 134.70p +2.59%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,076.00p +2.38%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 62.96p +2.32%BAE Systems (BA.) 427.00p +2.23%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 349.60p +2.16%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 285.20p +2.15%FTSE 100 - FallersBritish Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 779.00p -2.44%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 282.60p -2.32%Evraz (EVR) 155.40p -2.14%CRH (CRH) 1,414.00p -1.94%Vodafone Group (VOD) 196.80p -1.55%Wolseley (WOS) 3,431.00p -1.49%ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,050.00p -1.41%Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,235.00p -1.19%Hammerson (HMSO) 545.00p -1.09%SSE (SSE) 1,662.00p -0.84%FTSE 250 - RisersBritvic (BVIC) 522.50p +10.65%Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 501.50p +9.91%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 32.82p +4.19%SDL (SDL) 368.00p +3.95%Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,604.00p +3.68%Supergroup (SGP) 790.00p +3.67%Ted Baker (TED) 1,470.00p +3.67%Alent (ALNT) 362.00p +3.61%Morgan Advance Materials (MGAM) 300.10p +3.23%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 267.80p +3.00%FTSE 250 - FallersKazakhmys (KAZ) 343.30p -6.02%FirstGroup (FGP) 146.00p -5.01%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 115.00p -4.17%TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 237.50p -3.92%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,970.00p -3.76%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 303.80p -3.56%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 43.50p -3.33%Inchcape (INCH) 558.50p -3.29%Menzies(John) (MNZS) 743.00p -2.81%Provident Financial (PFG) 1,575.00p -2.78%