The FTSE 100 surged past the 10,000 mark for the first time on the first trading day of 2026, marking a strong start to the new year after the last one saw the best performance for the UK share index in over a decade.
Experts said it was a further reminder of the attractions of LSE stocks, which many younger investors have almost completely eschewed.
After just over an hour of trading on Friday, the London stock benchmark had climbed almost 109 points to a new record intraday high of 10,046.25.
Last year, the index gained over 1,600 points or 21.5%.
The index took over two years to go from 8,000 to 9,000, between February 2023 to July 2025, and then the next thousand points took just 171 days.
Climbing above 10,000 is a "powerful reminder that the UK market has been more resilient than many give it credit for", said Dan Moczulski, UK managing director at eToro.
Market analyst Dan Coatsworth at AJ Bell said that, as well as making 2026 "one of the most significant years for the blue-chip index since its launch in 1984", he felt breaking through the 10,000 level was important politically.
He said it was a gift for Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her campaign to nudge more people to invest rather than just hoard cash in the bank.
"The FTSE 100’s achievements just go to show what’s possible when buying UK shares. It also proves to cynics that the UK market is not stuck in the mud, and that the US stock market is not the only place to make money," he said.
The London index's climb in the past year has topped the flagship US S&P 500 thanks to its diverse range of industries.
This offered "a tonic to investors who started to get the jitters about tech stocks", while also offering value for investors looking for cheaper areas of the market.
"Lots of people have criticised the UK for being an old economy market, full of boring companies in the banking and natural resources sector," said Coatsworth.
"Yes, it lacks the excitement of go-go-growth stocks omnipresent in the US, but boring can also be beautiful when it comes to investing.
"The UK is a rich hunting ground for dividends, and it is also full of companies that have slow but steady growth and which are underappreciated engines for wealth creation."
Acceleration in 2025 and 2026 for the FTSE comes after years of underperformance relative to US peers, with sentiment often clouded by Brexit fallout, political instability, and sluggish growth.
The index moving into a five-figure sum has also been seen to reflect renewed investor confidence and robust earnings delivery from UK firms.
"It shows that British equities are far from stagnant, with a number of domestically listed companies delivering strong results after years of scepticism," said Moczulski.
An analysis of eToro's retail investors showed that just 16% of global respondents currently hold exposure to UK stocks, compared to 44% invested in the US market.
"US markets have dominated people’s attention for so long that many investors, particularly the younger ones, haven’t even considered British stocks," he said. “But there are plenty of high-quality businesses right under our noses.”
He added that UK equities offer "a compelling mix of quality and value", with the added benefit of lower dollar exposure, a factor that he said "could prove increasingly attractive" amid geopolitical uncertainty.