Miners lead FTSE back towards year-high Confirmation of fresh stimulus in the US sent the FTSE 100 back over 5,900 points on Friday for the first time since March, led by its resource and financial stocks. The return to risk came after the Federal Reserve's much anticipated announcement of further quantitative easing, or QE3, eased traders fears about the dangers posed to world growth by the sluggish recovery in America. Nine of the top 10 stocks on London's benchmark index were mining stocks, with Barclays propping the list up, rising 4.9 per cent to 228.5p. Kazakhmys was the top stock, up 8.8 per cent at 739.6p. Just 13 constituents fell, united by their defensive properties. Diageo, the drinks maker, was the biggest single loser, down 0.9 per cent at £1.74. Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline was 0.7 per cent softer at £14.29. Having hit a session high of 5,906.11 the FTSE 100 eased back from it a touch to 5,897.41, still up 1.3 per cent on the session, a rise of 79 points. It was in line with the wider gains seen on global markets. "With the market needing more and more stimulus to achieve the same highs, the obvious question - how long will it last? - will no doubt be debated over the coming days and weeks," said Cameron Peacock, market analyst at IG. Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC Markets, said: "In a nutshell the Fed has undertaken to do whatever it takes to reduce unemployment . . . By undertaking to buy $40bn worth of mortgage back securities per month on an open-ended basis, starting with $23bn in September, the committee decided to throw caution to the winds and dispense with worrying about appearing political, in the lead-up to the US election. There were broad gains on the FTSE 250, where mid-cap metals stocks shone as the economic outlook improves. Ferrexpo, the maker of iron ore pellets, made the best single gain, up 15.3 per cent to 226.3p. Gold miner Petropavlovsk was 8.8 per cent higher at 411.7p. Overall, London's mid-cap index was 1.9 per cent stronger at 12,076.72, a rise of 229 points taking it to a fresh high for 2012 and its best reading since July 2011.