The FTSE 100 could still hit 7,000 - but remember that QE cannot last Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that traders had been looking for opportunities to take profits following the strong run and on Thursday they could take their pick. The minutes from the latest US Federal Reserve meeting sparked concern that easing measures could soon be brought to an end. A sharp drop in the Japanese market - precipitated by weak Chinese data - then gave them reason enough to take money off the table. Nothing had materially changed overnight. You've still got accommodative policies from a lot of central banks around the world [and] corporate earnings are still going in the right direction," Mr Hunter said, adding that he expected the FTSE 100 to push higher this year. Mike Ingram, market analyst at BGC Partners, said the benchmark index is unlikely to replicate the impressive gains it has experienced during the first five months of 2013 during the rest of the year, although he does think it will rise enough to surpass 7,000. "I think the easy money has been made," he said. Ultimately, the growth in the economy isn't there. While the rally has no doubt been good for our pension pots, it does not appear to have done a great deal for market volumes and the stockbrokers who make money from secondary trading. One dealer said that there has "not been the pick-up that you'd have thought, given the market levels," while another was blunter still, noting that it was "low on the way up, low on the way down." The paucity of business in the market is apparent from the latest statistics from the London Stock Exchange. As of the end of April, the total value of trades on the bourse's UK order book, which also includes exchange-traded funds, fell 5.7pc to £346.3bn compared with the same period a year earlier. The number of trades dropped 13.3pc to 51.9m. This lack of trading could provide part of the explanation for the FTSE 100"s sharp rise this year, as lower volumes can make it easier for dramatic moves in the market to occur. Nevertheless, although broking firms have not been doing a roaring trade, investment managers have benefited from the surge in equities and are among the biggest individual risers in the FTSE 100. For instance, shares in Hargreaves Lansdown, which last month reported £1.8bn in record net inflows for its fiscal third quarter, have jumped 45.2pc so far this year and touched record highs earlier in May. Schroders, which earlier in May surpassed expectations for first-quarter profits and revenue, has risen 44.3pc, having also recently reached a record. On the FTSE 250, Man Group, up 50pc, has been helped by the huge stock market rally seen in Japan, spurred by the unprecedented stimulus policies of new prime minister Shinzo Abe. The mid-cap hedge fund group has been betting on rising Japanese equities and the falling yen and is expected to have benefited from that trade this year. Despite the 7.3pc plunge, the Nikkei 225 suffered last Thursday, the stock index is still up an impressive 40pc since the beginning of 2013. But while equities have surged, gold has tumbled, as investors shy away from traditional safe havens. Quantitative easing by central banks around the world boosted the value of the yellow metal, as global stimulus measures raised investor concern about inflation. But concern that the US Federal Reserve is considering an end to bond purchases has hit gold, and, in turn, hurt shares in the precious-metal miners listed on London's premier index. The Russian yellow metal producer, Polymetal International, has suffered the heaviest fall on the FTSE 100 this year, slumping 44.8pc. Mexican silver and gold producer Fresnillo is down 41.6pc and Randgold Resources is off 16.2pc. But the FTSE 100 has risen despite the underperforming mining sector, which has a heavy weighting in the index. Paul Kavanagh, partner at Killik & Co, reckons the rally is not over yet. "I still think that the bull case for equities remains intact," he said. Markets will have to accept that central bankers, in order to retain some sense of credibility, have to continue to remind everybody that stimulus has to come off at some point. However, that won't be happening imminently. The macro environment is not going to improve sufficiently for them to be able to do that at this juncture.