Buying interest on the London market continued yesterday, helping the FTSE 100 index shrug off renewed worries on interest rates and a soggy start in New York. After breaking the trend of seven consecutive falls on Tuesday, there was little appetite for the bears to grab Footsie.

For all its determination, the market could not escape the fears on interest rates that returned ahead of the start of yesterday's testimony before a US Senate banking committee by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve. However, the index ended the day up 34.4 up at 6297.2. Unlike Tuesday's session, all sectors of the market were in demand so that the Midcap, FTSE 350 and the SmallCap all ended in positive territory. Total turnover was 1.15 billion.