Having peaked at its highest close since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers on Monday, the blue-chip index slipped back 4.42 points to 5602.3, as investors mulled over poorer-than-expected UK export figures. But, the premier index is still flying high compared to a year ago yesterday when, in the shadow of the financial crisis, it hit a six-year low of 3460. Since then, the FTSE 100 has rallied by around 60pc.   Related Articles Which way for the FTSE100? Minister holds lavish Moroccan birthday party The bulls are in a china shop as this fragile rally threatens to crash Sail away with a piece of Madoff memorabilia The FTSE's legs may have given up at 11 but there are reasons for optimism Coming into focus yesterday were the banks after a cautious note from Jonathan Pierce at Credit Suisse, who argued that there were "elephants in the room" when it came to considering the future performance of UK banks including Basel III capital requirements and funding constraints.[Read more...]