The FTSE 100 looked set to deliver its fourth consecutive day of gains on Friday, as it begins the final day of trading in the second quarter in a positive fashion. Since hitting a five-month low of 6,029 on Monday, the benchmark index has rebounded strongly over the past few sessions, gaining nearly 4.0% as of this morning with many seeing the sell-off over recent weeks as overdone.The gains have been helped by comments from officials of the Federal Reserve who spoke out yesterday, attempting to ease market fears about an impending withdrawal of stimulus. Head of the New York Fed William Dudley said that rise in short-term interest rates is "very likely to be a long way off" even if the central bank begins to scale back its quantitative easing programme later this year. He said that markets were wrong to think that tighter policy is coming soon, a view shared by many other policymakers.Meanwhile, with a number of key US economic indicators coming in better than forecasts yesterday - jobless claims, personal spending and incomes, pending home-sales - confidence appears to be growing in the American economy as markets have (arguably) now priced in the inevitable 'taper'."All in all, [the data] points to an economy that is continuing to improve in the second quarter and is showing no signs of slowing as we head into the third," said Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari this morning.Helped support stocks on Friday were UK consumer confidence figures which picked up this month in line with expectations driven by growing optimism about the economy, according to GfK. The research company said its monthly consumer confidence index rose to -21 in June from -22 in May, the highest level since 2011. Serco gains after strong first halfOutsourcing group Serco was a strong riser this morning after saying that organic revenue growth was ahead of expectations in the first half thanks to the bumper level of contract wins the year before. However, the company maintained its full-year profits guidance after saying it expects to report a small reduction in first-half margins.Heading the other way was defence group BAE Systems after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to 'hold'. Telecoms firm Vodafone however was making gains after the same broker raised its rating to 'buy'.Similarly, Schroders was performing well after the asset management company was upgraded by Exane BNP Paribas to 'outperform'.Ultra Electronics rose after being awarded a £14m contract extension with the MoD for its End Cryptographic Unit Replacement Programme.FTSE 100 - RisersSerco Group (SRP) 619.50p +3.16%Schroders (SDR) 2,207.00p +2.37%Pearson (PSON) 1,173.00p +1.65%Aggreko (AGK) 1,686.00p +1.57%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 1,164.00p +1.57%Old Mutual (OML) 182.00p +1.39%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 389.20p +1.25%Standard Life (SL.) 355.00p +1.20%CRH (CRH) 1,354.00p +1.20%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 815.00p +1.18%FTSE 100 - FallersEurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 208.90p -1.37%BAE Systems (BA.) 386.10p -1.30%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 730.50p -0.88%BP (BP.) 453.75p -0.62%TUI Travel (TT.) 359.00p -0.61%Sage Group (SGE) 340.70p -0.53%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,640.00p -0.52%ITV (ITV) 142.30p -0.42%Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,106.00p -0.36%AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,142.00p -0.32%FTSE 250 - RisersNMC Health (NMC) 281.50p +4.26%JPMorgan Indian Inv Trust (JII) 350.00p +3.00%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 161.60p +2.28%Polymetal International (POLY) 465.60p +2.15%Essar Energy (ESSR) 125.80p +2.03%COLT Group SA (COLT) 101.90p +1.90%Greene King (GNK) 781.50p +1.89%Drax Group (DRX) 583.00p +1.75%Provident Financial (PFG) 1,493.00p +1.70%Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 126.20p +1.69%FTSE 250 - FallersPerform Group (PER) 517.50p -4.17%Computacenter (CCC) 452.40p -3.25%888 Holdings (888) 151.50p -3.01%Morgan Advance Materials (MGAM) 258.40p -2.82%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 260.20p -1.81%Homeserve (HSV) 277.70p -1.31%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 102.80p -1.15%IP Group (IPO) 133.50p -1.11%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 148.50p -1.00%PayPoint (PAY) 1,045.00p -0.85%s
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