On what was effectively the last full-blown trading session of the year, London's equity market gathered itself for a pre-Christmas fling. And a stirring end to the week it was too, with the FTSE 100 index surging over three figures at best and hitting a session high of 5,182.2, before easing back to close a net 79 higher, at 5,152.9.
It was a much less impressive showing by the other indices. The FTSE 250 index rose 12.4 to 5,826.4, having been up to 5,844.8 at best, while the Techmark 100 closed 6.38 up at 1,431.89. The only casualty was the FTSE SmallCap, which reversed 12.2 to 2,559.2. Over the week, the 100 index rose 98.2 while the 250 index moved up 20.1. The SmallCap dropped 39.25 points and the Techmark 100 index, 11.6.
But turnover levels were poor throughout the morning and quickly petered out during the afternoon as dealers and fund managers headed home early for the Christmas holiday.
Monday, Christmas Eve, is a half-day session, with the market closing at 1.30 p.m., while turnover on Thursday, a full session, and Friday, another half-day, is expected to fall to minimal levels.
The market's closing ebullience was in sharp contrast to the early part of the trading session, which saw sentiment suffer and the main indices droop in the wake of events in Argentina and on Wall Street overnight. The fall of the Argentine government and continuing riots in that country alarmed US investors, as did the latest profit warnings, including one from Juniper Networks.
Some encouraging US economic news was said to have been one of the main drivers of the market's late surge, with the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey coming in well ahead of consensus estimates and helping to drive Wall Street higher.
Oil shares were always in the forefront of the better trend in the 100 index, responding to firmer oil prices ahead of the emergency OPEC meeting scheduled for next week.
And many of the "old economy" stocks helped to fuel the market's late advance. British Airways, badly affected by the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11th, topped the winners' list while the consumer sectors also came in for strong support.
Turnover in equities was 1.52 billion shares.
