The recent 10% rally across the equities indices over the past two weeks have not been driven by "real money", but by mutual funds and speculators closing out put options, analysts at BNP Paribas have said, dampening hope that investors have become more confident of a stock market recovery.

In research released yesterday, analysts at the French bank identified there has been a significant amount of investors exercising put options held in equities indices, which could have sparked a large spike.