Wall Street's resilient performance overnight and its impressive leap forward yesterday, coupled with some market-friendly US economic news and more domestic takeover activity, set the stage for a strong gain by London's equity market. The previous session's brief but sizeable setback caused by news of the resignation of Mr Robert Rubin, the US treasury secretary, was all but forgotten, as the positive news overwhelmed the market's bears.

All the expectations of a quiet session because of the closure of most European stock markets for the Ascension Day holiday were blown away by the pace and power of Wall Street's move to new records. By the finish, the FTSE 100 index had raced back through the 6,400 level, eventually settling 113.5 higher at 6,456.6, having hit a session high of 6,466.0.

Although never looking likely to match the impressive performance of the leaders, the second and third-ranking stocks also made decent progress on a mixture of positive trading news and takeover and merger stories. The FTSE 250 rose 8.3 to 5,815.2, while the FTSE SmallCap closed 6.2 firmer at a day's best of 2,588.2.

Turnover in equities reached 1.1 billion shares by the 6 p.m. count and was boosted considerably by renewed intense activity in Rentokil.