Footsie hits high while Wall Street holidays

London took full advantage of Wall Street's closure for the Thanksgiving Day break, with most the FTSE indices moving to intra-day and closing records as the market continued to enjoy a pre-millennium buying spree.

The main driving force behind the latest upsurge in the FTSE 100 index once again came from many of the market's heavyweight sectors and stocks - the telecoms, oils and banks.

And there was widespread relief among the utilities after the water regulator delivered a new five-year pricing regime no worse than the market had been going for. Some cautious market-makers in London took the view that had Wall Street been open yesterday London would have had to struggle harder to register its closing gains.

The optimists, however, insisted that London was becoming increasingly momentum driven. "Looking at the rise in the index, you would expect an overwhelming ratio of winners to losers; that is not the case, 51 stocks were up and 46 lower with three unchanged. It is the market weightings of the winners that counted," he said.

London always looked secure but it was not until news of more takeover action was announced, involving confirmation of takeover talks at United Biscuits and news that the Secretary of Trade and Industry, Mr Stephen Byers had given a green light to Bank of Scotland's bid for National Westminster, that the market really took off.

The FTSE All-Share index, meanwhile, raced up 49.28, or 1.6 per cent to a closing high of 3,115.99, having reached an intra-day record of 3,117.07.

Since the start of the year the 100 index has risen 13.6 per cent, the All-Share by 16.5 per cent and the 250 by 26.8 per cent. The SmallCap has climbed 38 per cent.

Wall Street's performance on Wednesday, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average finish slightly higher on the day, but more importantly still above the 11,000 level and the high-technology laden Nasdaq Composite close at a record high, provided London with a good initial impetus.

And the recent strength in crude oil prices drove BP Amoco, the London market's biggest stock by market capitalisation and therefore the heaviest-weighted stock in the index, sharply higher.

The index was also helped by another strong showing by Vodafone AirTouch, the second-most influential stock in the 100, as some big broking houses, notably Credit Suisse First Boston, issued positive notes.

Turnover in equities was a hefty 1.9 billion shares, well up to recent enhanced levels, with Vodafone once again heavily traded and accounting for around 10 per cent of the total.