Driven mostly by Wall Street, global stocks ruled off on their largest quarterly advance since 2010.

The climb over the past three months was sealed on Friday on hopes for progress in US-China trade talks that resumed in Beijing, while a rally in sovereign bonds eased.

The FTSE All World index has risen 11.4 per cent so far in 2019, its biggest quarterly increase since the September quarter of 2010. A 13.1 per cent rise for the S&P 500 was its biggest quarterly rise since the third quarter of 2009, as well as the biggest March quarter rise since 1998.

On Friday, the S&P 500 finished ⅔ of 1 per cent higher, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.8 per cent.

The levels reached by global equities in their wider rally for 2019 look dependent on signs of resolution in the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Concern at the darkening outlook for global growth has drawn investors back into government bond markets over the last week, pushing yields lower.

Optimism on the trade talks drew investors out of government debt on Friday, lifting yields. As investors moved out of Treasuries, the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond rose 1.6 basis points to 2.405 per cent. It surrendered the 2.4 per cent level on Monday for the first time since December 2017, when worries about global growth reverberated across markets, and spent a good portion of today’s session below the level.

The dollar was slightly firmer after US inflation data narrowly missed forecasts and hit an 11-month low. The index tracking the world’s reserve currency fell 0.1 per cent to 97.268.

Earlier in the day, China’s CSI 300 rallied 3.9 per cent. The gain took the mainland index up 28 per cent in the first three months of the year, its best quarterly performance since the end of 2014.

European equities brightened, with gains of 0.9 per cent for Frankfurt’s Xetra Dax 30 and 0.6 per cent for London’s FTSE 100. The region-wide Stoxx 600 added 0.6 per cent, helped by a 2 per cent rise for the mining sector, which is sensitive to sentiment on global growth.

Sterling sank below the $1.30 mark after another rejection of UK Prime Minister’s Brexit withdrawal agreement by parliament. The pound recovered to trade down 0.1 per cent at $1.3025.