Our investment and economic update for May 2018 takes a closer look at how the investment markets, global economy and commodities are performing. The FTSE 100 index of leading UK company shares finished April at 7,509.30 points, up from 7,016.76 points at the end of March. This represents an increase of 492.54 points or 7% during the month. The monthly increase sees the FTSE 100 regain the majority of the losses that occurred during February and March, although the index is still some 3.5% lower than where it started the year. A significant part of the increase in April followed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announcement of an upgraded forecast for UK economic growth for 2018 and that global growth would have its strongest year since 2011.