Royal Bank of Scotland leads the way as FTSE 100 hits highest level since September 2000 As leading shares hit heights not seen for almost 13 years, Royal Bank of Scotland was the day's biggest riser. The bank ended 15.1p higher at 351.9p after analysts at Numis raised their recommendation from hold to buy and their target price from 308p to 410p. The broker said RBS's US business Citizens was undervalued while the profitability of its UK retail operations would be underpinned by its efficiency measures. Overall the FTSE 100 finished 32.57 points higher at 6755.63, pushing through the peak of 6732 seen in 2007 and reaching its highest level since September 2000, just as the dotcom bubble was about to burst. Investors continued to take heart from central bank actions to stimulate the global economy. Worries about what happens when the taps are turned off are being put to one side at the moment, although analysts warned they cannot be ignored for ever. The mood was helped by Friday's better than expected US consumer confidence figures and news that Japan raised its outlook for the economy for the first time in two months. Equities are also providing reasonable returns given the current low interest rate environment, as well as falling government bond yields and declines in the price of commodities, notably precious metals. Indeed, gold is on its longest losing streak for four years while silver is at its lowest since September 2010. So Fresnillo led the fallers, down 35p at £10.34. Randgold Resources was 61p lower at £46.96 while precious metals specialist Polymetal dropped 16.5p to 617p. There were also concerns about further industrial unrest in South Africa after unions reportedly sought pay rises of up to 60% from some of the main mining groups. Elsewhere controversial Kazakh miner Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation lost 7.5p to 264.1p after the board revealed details of the proposed offer from its founding oligarchs. It said the terms were a total of 260p a share, in a mixture of 175p cash and 0.231 of a share in associate Kazakhmys. The independent directors said the bid undervalued the business. On Friday the Takeover Panel gave an extension for the bidders until 3 June. Kazakhmys, up 13.3p at 351.7p, made clear the shares involved were those owned by the Kazakh government, and said it was not itself part of the consortium bidding for ENRC. Its own stake in ENRC was not a strategic investment and it would consider any proposal from the consortium at the appropriate time. Back among the risers, budget airline EasyJet climbed 47p to £12.35, buoyed by good results from rival Ryanair, up nearly 7% at €6.765. Ryanair reported a 13% rise in full year profits to €569m, helped by strong growth in fares and a rise in charges for extras such as baggage and in-flight refreshments. EasyJet was also helped by a Citigroup buy note, with the bank raising its target price from £12.10 to £13.30 and pointing to the prospect of a payout to shareholders. Analyst Andrew Light said: [Our] earnings forecasts raised by around 10% on better revenue outlook and lower fuel costs. Our dividend per share estimates have also been increased by around 10% with around 10% growth per annum based on a 33% payout ratio. We expect balance sheet net cash to rise to over £1.2bn by 2015. We therefore continue to think there could be a further special dividend. Ocado added 11p to 285.1p as Exane BNP Paribas raised its target price on the online grocer from 225p to 300p in the wake of its long awaited tie-up with Morrisons, up 2.8p at 289.3p, unveiled on Friday. Arm shook off worries the chipmaker had lost out to Intel in Samsung's new tablet, closing 8p better at £10.96. But analyst Janardan Menon at Liberum Capital said: It is being widely speculated in industry news sites that Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy Tab 3 with a 10.1" screen will be running on an Intel processor. If true, this would be a major setback for Arm as it would be a first Android-based device from Samsung to use an Intel processor rather than an Arm-based processor. Our sell recommendation on Arm is based primarily on a view that it will continue to lose market share in the smartphone and tablet markets to Intel, as the latter is now on par with Arm on power consumption and performance. With its more advanced manufacturing roadmap, we expect Intel to potentially go ahead of Arm in coming years. We believe Arm's lofty valuation does not factor in this rapidly growing competitive threat from Intel. News of falling profits and a £615m cash call sent FirstGroup down more than 30% to 155.6p. The bus and rail company unveiled a 3 for 2 rights issue at 85p a share to raise funds for investment and to cut its £2bn of borrowings. Much of the debt was run up by buying US bus business Laidlaw in 2007. Meanwhile it reported a 36.5% drop in full year profits to £172.4m, hit by falling earnings at its bus business, which is currently being restructured, rising fuel costs, and the ending of some of its rail subsidies. It is cutting its dividend payment to shareholders. Chairman Martin Gilbert is also stepping down after 27 years at the company, once a successor is found. Healthcare group BTG fell 18p to 338.6p. The company saw full year underlying profits rise from £19.9m to £25.7m, but there is caution ahead of a US decision on whether to approve its Varisolve treatment for varicose veins, due early next year. Keith Redpath at finnCap said: The next key event which will move the share price will be FDA approval of Varisolve or otherwise in the first half of 2014. We see no reason to buy before this point. Food producer Cranswick climbed 28p to £11.15 after the pork specialist reported an 8% full year profit rise to £49.3m. It was helped by increased consumption of pig meat in the UK, with strong sales of bacon and sausages. Investment in improving production helped offset some of the effects of higher pork prices, while it also benefited from growing demand for UK producers in the wake of recent worries about meat supplies. After the year end, Cranswick made the strategic acquisition of East Anglian Pigs. Charles Hall at Peel Hunt said: Cranswick successfully mitigated the sharp rise in pig prices last year, with retailers keen to ensure access to UK product. Over the year pig prices increased from 140p per kilo to 158p. Prices are continuing to move forwards and are now 163p. A smaller increase in prices is generally harder to recover, and this may put pressure on margins this year. This will be partially mitigated by the acquisition of East Anglian Pigs, which brings some vertical integration. Cranswick continues to perform well despite the increase in input prices. However, the shares seem fairly rated, given the relatively pedestrian profit growth. We have increased our target price to 1,050p to reflect the increase in peer group valuations. Hold. Finally Aim-listed agrochemical company Eden Research jumped 56% to 13.625p on news that the three active substances in its lead product 3AEY had been approved by the European Commission for use in plant protection. The EU approval process has taken seven years to complete, but should now trigger similar decisions elsewhere, notably in Africa.