Britain's FTSE 100 index posted a three-week high at midday today after an expected Bank of England interest rate cut kept banking and telecom shares on an upward course.
The FTSE 100 index climbed 102.2 points or 2.09 per cent to 4,984.0 by 11.13 GMT - virtually unchanged from the level before the cut.
Earlier, it approached the 5,000 level at which it last stood on September 11th before the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington.
The Bank of England cut Britain's interest rates by another quarter point to 4.5 per cent, the lowest since 1964, in a bid to boost confidence after the attacks on the United States.
Banks provided 32 points of FTSE index upside after the rate cut, with Barclays up 4.4 per cent.
Telecom shares delivered 27 points of index upside, having climbed along with technology stocks after a reassuring statement from US tech giant Cisco Systems.
Mobile-phone firm Vodafone jumped 4 per cent to 155-1/2 pence, holding onto gains after it said it added 2.5 million subscribers worldwide in the July-September period.