is at its highest since they started collating the data in the late 1980s,” Deutsche says.However, not all are so upbeat about the prospects for UK stocks in 2004. JP Morgan forecasts the FTSE 100 to end the year pretty much unchanged at 4,450. It believes corporate earnings revisions will remain very positive going forward. “For the FTSE 100 index, over the last three months the balance of earnings upgrades over downgrades … ” UK GDP is already above trend and survey evidence suggests that this will continue into the new year,” Deutsche says.Good news for the UK’s economy will inevitably mean good news for British corporates, according to the German brokerage.

ABN Amro was the most precise with its prediction of 4,500 for the FTSE 100, closely followed by Barclays Stockbrokers with 4,400. Despite ABN’s success, the broker has decided not to make any forecasts for 2004.Should Deutsche Bank be proved right, investors will enjoy another 13 per cent jump in share prices in 2004. It believes this performance will be driven by another good year for the UK economy, which it expects to grow by 3 per cent in the next 12 months. It closed 12.8 points higher at 4,457.5 yesterday.Most stock market forecasters will want to forget 2002, but on the whole tipsters did a lot better this year. The City’s top stock market strategists are warning that 2004 will be a year of more modest gains for the FTSE 100. After a 13 per cent rise by the index this year, the average increase seen by strategists for blue chips next year is just 7 per cent, crushing hopes of a dramatic recovery in shares to levels seen during the last bull run. “We had 100,000 people in here on Boxing Day and they have been queuing up all weekend,” said Norman Black, the marketing manager at Brent Cross.Harrods added to the sales fever yesterday, using US actress Jennifer Love Hewitt to open the doors to an expected 300,000 shoppers.

A spokeswoman said the shop was “heaving” and that sales had been very strong.The City is waiting, however, to hear more solid confirmation from the sector.WH Smith, Matalan, Austin Reed and New Look have all issued warnings or posted downbeat trading statements in the past few months. Unusually warm weather has hit sales, and concerns that interest rates are on the rise have sparked fears that the spending boom is about to end.. The centre says more than 300,000 people have visited since Boxing Day.”Sales in the run up to Christmas had been fairly flat but since then, our car parks have been full,” said Andy Orr, the centre’s general manager.Brent Cross, in North London, chose to open its doors on Boxing Day for the first time in its 27-year history. This year we did see the rush in the final few days, partly induced by selective pre-Christmas promotions. But it also seems that the last minute rush didn’t totally satiate the shopping appetite.

The number of shoppers in the early days of the post-Christmas sales is generally higher than last year.”Retailers in the Trafford Centre in Manchester are reporting a 25 to 30 per cent boost in sales over the past four days on the same period last year. “The Sunday and Monday before Christmas both saw sales up 9 per cent and sales were up 5 per cent on Christmas Eve. It was a last-minute Christmas after all.”There was a 3.3 per cent rise in shopping traffic on Christmas Eve compared with last year, according to SPSL Tim Denison, of SPSL, said “Last year, the last-minute rush simply failed to happen. Shopper numbers on Saturday were up 2.5 per cent year on year and up 18.2 per cent week on week.