Pound slump inspires FTSE 100 to reach new high and longest-ever string of records

The FTSE 100 has only risen for 11 straight sessions on three occasions since the index was launched in 1984

Shares in the FTSE's international exporters tend to grow when the pound falls

The UK’s bluechip stock index has chalked up its longest winning streak since 2009 and enjoyed its lengthiest ever unbroken series of record closes, amid a fresh slump in the country’s Brexit-battered currency.

The FTSE 100 is packed full of international exporters that tend to thrive when the pound falls because their products become cheaper for those buying in foreign currencies. At the end of Tuesday’s trading session the FTSE was up 0.5 per cent at 7275.50 points, marking its 11th consecutive session of gains.

The higher close also means that the index has now scored nine consecutive record highs for the first time ever, according to the London Stock Exchange, which operates the index.

In 1997, following Labour’s general election landslide victory under Tony Blair, it ended at a record high for eight consecutive days.

The benchmark has now risen around 1.9 per cent so far in 2017, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Its latest rise was largely spurred by the pound plumbing a new two-month low after Prime Minister Theresa May hinted over the weekend that the UK is heading towards a hard Brexit.

Sterling dropped 1.3 per cent against both the dollar and the euro on Monday after Ms May hinted that immigration controls were more important to the UK than access to the EU’s single market.

Sterling has been trading at its lowest level since 1985 since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June last year.

The pound fell again on Tuesday morning, dropping as low as $1.2115 — a level not seen since October 2016.

Some economists are predicting that the currency could slide to a fresh historical low when Ms May officially kickstarts divorce proceedings by triggering Article 50.

The FTSE 100 has only risen for 11 straight sessions on three occasions since the index was launched in 1984, according to the London Stock Exchange. Those winning streaks were in May 1997, December 2003 to January 2004 and July 2009.

On Tuesday, the FTSE 100 was largely spurred by mining stocks and a rally in retail names on the back of figures from market research firm Kantar Worldpanel showing that supermarket sales rose at their fastest rate since June 2014 in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Morrisons was one of the strongest performers, up almost four per cent, after the company reported like-for-like sales growth of 2.9 per cent over the Christmas period, well ahead of expectations.

Shares in Tesco were also up by more than four per cent, lifted by the news.

Among miners, shares in Anglo American soared by more than four per cent.

Joshua Mahony of IG said: “The fact that we are seeing the index hit these new highs in such a fearless manner says a lot about the potential for further gains”.

“Interestingly we have seen both Trump and May providing positive news for the respective US and UK indices, yet for very different reasons,“ Mahony added.

“While Trump has boosted US stocks by setting out a positive outlook for the future, the strength of the FTSE has been largely down to the pound devaluation associated with fears over a hard Brexit outcome.”