Optimism that a mass rollout of Covid-19 vaccines will lead to an economic recovery lifted stocks in London again on Tuesday, to their highest closing level in over four months.

London’s FTSE 100 index of blue-chip shares rallied by nearly 1.8% to finish at 6,296 points, the highest close since 23 June. This added £28bn to the index’s value, taking its gains so far this week to nearly £100bn after it surged 4.6% on Monday on news of a vaccine breakthrough.

Investors continued to snap up stocks, such as airlines, transport companies and hospitality firms on Tuesday, hoping for a return to normality in 2021.

Monday’s promising clinical data from Pfizer and BioNTech, showing their Covid-19 vaccine was