The technology, media and telecom sectors so often responsible for dragging the market down gave an impressive display yesterday on the first anniversary of the Techmark 100's record high.
The momentum behind the TMTs propelled the FTSE 100 back through 6,000 while the other main indices were equally impressive, especially the Techmark 100. At the end of a day when the market bulls moved in decisively, the FTSE 100 closed a net 80.7 higher at 6,012.0, having reached a day's best of 6,027.6.
Over the past two days, ahead of the budget and the start of the two-day meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, the index has risen 153.4, or 2.6 per cent, rallying from its recent two-year low point.
The Techmark 100, which has had to endure a torrid time since reaching its March 6th record last year, gave another powerful performance. It just failed to record a three-figure advance but nevertheless raced up to close 96.24, or 4.2 per cent, higher at 2,398.10.
The FTSE 250 jumped 33.4 to 6,622.0, not far short of the session high of 6,627.5, while the FTSE SmallCap settled 27.3 better at a day's best of 3,185.8.
Wall Street was the catalyst for the latest revival of the equity market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished Monday night's session with a 95-point gain, having been up 105 points at best, and the Nasdaq Composite posted a modest 25-point rise, despite another batch of profit warnings.
There was more of the same from Wall Street yesterday as the Dow shot up 128 points not long before London closed.
The Nasdaq Composite rose more than 100 before also shading back to record an 80-points rise by the UK close.
Without a doubt it was the resurgence of the TMTs that provided the thrust for the FTSE 100.
And the biggest winner in terms of Footsie points was Vodafone Group. The mobile phone group not only accounted for more than 50 points on the index but also recouped its number one position as the UK's biggest company, measured by market capitalisation.
Vodafone shares fell to their lowest level since the end of 1999 only last week, but bounced strongly from the low 180s ahead of a presentation today to analysts and institutions.
