FTSE 100 and Techmark indices lead market rally

The eve of the first anniversary of the Techmark 100's record high brought with it a much-needed rally in London yesterday with the FTSE 100 recrossing the 5,900 level. Ironically, it was the telecom, media and technology (TMT) sectors of the market, so roughly handled since March 6th last year, that provided most of the ammunition for yesterday's market-wide rally.

The other FTSE 100 heavyweights, including the oil majors, GlaxoSmithKline and a couple of the biggest of the UK banks, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, were also being chased by fund managers.

Investors were said by dealers to be slightly concerned that the market might stage a powerful recovery during what promises to be one of the busiest weeks of the market year. This week brings the quarterly review of the FTSE 100 constituent list, with the cut-off point after today's close.

Tomorrow brings with it the Budget and the start of the regular two-day meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee. The committee's decision whether to cut rates again will be announced at noon on Thursday.

Most economists, including the teams at ABN Amro and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, expect the committee to leave rates on hold. There will be important economic data, too, from the US later in the week, notably the non-farm payroll report for February, expected on Friday.

While the rise in the FTSE 100 was fuelled by the outstanding gains in the TMTs, the oil majors and the drug stocks, the FTSE 250 and SmallCap indices were left behind. The Techmark 100, brimming with confidence as the technology stocks raced ahead, moved up an impressive 53.43 to 2,301.86.

Wall Street's rather erratic performance on Friday evening, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 16 points having been down almost 150 points and up 129 points, was seen as supportive of London. And the Dow pushed up another 69 points yesterday, while the Nasdaq Composite moved up 17 points.

The only disappointment for the market was the rather stodgy level of turnover which could only reach 1.61 billion shares, 15 per cent of which was attributable to Vodafone.