A resurgent TMT grouping, in the wake of reassuring news from two of America's tech giants, IBM and Intel, spearheaded another impressive gain by London's stock market yesterday.
Adding to those positives were some encouraging economic data, interpreted by the market as indicating the likelihood of further cuts in domestic interest rates.
At the end of the session, the FTSE 100 sat happily above the 5,200 level up 120.8, or 2.4 per cent, at 5,203.4. The index touched 5,229.6, up 147.0, at its best of the day.
The FTSE 250, meanwhile, ran up 74.4, or 1.4 per cent, to 5,549.7, and the FTSE SmallCap 40.1, or 1.7 per cent, to 2,368.6.
But by far the best individual performance from the main indices came from the Techmark 100, which finished the day a net 63.65, or 4.7 per cent, higher at 1,418.60. At its best the Techmark hit 1,433.40. Although traders were alert to the possibility that the market could turn on a sixpence in the event of disturbing news from the war against terrorism, the mood was said to have brightened considerably.
"We've had some keen buying of the TMTs and turnover in the market is picking up strongly; maybe the IBM/Intel news marks a sea change," said one marketmaker.
Both US stocks met market forecasts for third-quarter earnings in statements issued after Wall Street had closed.
Even before the news the Dow Jones Industrial Average had recouped earlier losses and posted a 36 points gain, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite moved up 25 points.
And Wall Street's initial performance yesterday gave further heart to London, the Dow opening sharply higher and posting a three-figure gain ahead of Mr Alan Greenspan's biannual testimony to Congress. The speech was seen by the economics team at ING Barings as having "no direct implications for rates, but the bias to ease is implicit". But further anthrax scares saw the Dow falter and drop into negative territory, although they had limited impact on a still rampant London market.
Turnover in equities expanded to 3.12 billion shares, the heaviest so far this week, and was boosted by another massive turnover in Vodafone where 515 million shares changed hands, more than 16 per cent of total volume.
