Apart from what one market trader described as "a little dose of profit-taking" in the leaders early in the session, it was another highly successful day for London's equity market yesterday.
The junior FTSE indices raced to fresh intra-day and closing records and the FTSE 100 recovered its poise to finish well up on balance after a slightly uneasy performance during the morning, responding to a strong opening by Wall Street.
Down over 40 points at its worst of the day, the FTSE 100 index staged a determined rally and hit 6,436.5 before easing back to finish 67.2 ahead at 6.432.1 - extending the rise over the past three days to 332.5, or 5.5 per cent.
The FTSE 250 and SmallCap indices both sat proudly at record intra-day and closing highs, with the former up 60.2 at 6,676.8, its seventh straight gain, during which time the index has risen 5.7 per cent. Not to be outshone the FTSE SmallCap jumped 47.7, or 1.4 per cent, to a peak of 3,421.9.
Once again it was the "steady as she goes" view on domestic interest rates and a further decline in sterling that were being put forward by dealers as the main drivers of the market.
The recent shift in sentiment on the likely path of short-term British interest rates has come in the wake of comments by Mr Eddie George, governor of the Bank of England, and Mr David Clementi, deputy governor, suggesting a less hawkish attitude on the monetary policy committee. The committee meets next Wednesday and Thursday and is now expected to leave rates unchanged.
Sterling dipped again, slipping 0.2 to 108.4 on the Bank of England's sterling exchange rate index, in the wake of news that the European Central Bank had left euro zone interest rates unchanged.
Around the individual sectors, the oils gave good support to Footise throughout the session in the wake of crude oil prices breaking through the $31 (€32) a barrel level in New York overnight, the highest level since the Gulf War.
The overall picture in the top 100 stocks was a rather unusual mix of "old economy" and "new economy" stocks moving in both directions.
From a rather sluggish start to the day, turnover quickly built up, eventually driving through the two billion-shares mark and finishing at 2.1 billion.
Vodafone AirTouch remained in its now familiar position at the top of the turnover table, with turnover reaching 350 million shares.
