A LAST gasp effort during the final 15 minutes of trading saw the FTSE 100 scramble back into positive territory and stand proudly at a record closing high as the old year drew to a close on Tuesday.
But the peak close did not come without a tussle. Wall Street's late fall on Monday night, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 11 points lower after an early strong showing, unsettled London at the outset of trading when the FTSE 100 drifted back over six points.
In mid session, however, the Footsie edged its way to a new intraday peak of 4,118.0, fuelled by keen interest in the FTSE future, itself responding to evidence of expiries in individually tailored options, or OTCs.
But after that burst of activity, the future fell back taking the cash market with it as profit taking saw share prices slip away and back into the red.
Then, another series of expiries of OTCs provided the late bounce for the future and the FTSE 100 which closed the session a net 2.8 ahead at 4,118.5.
SGST, the French owned stockbroker, was said to have been responsible for the first option related activity and SBC Warburg for the second burst.
Activity in the second liners and smaller stocks was much more sedate, with the FTSE 250 gradually building on a quietly firm opening and eventually closing at 4,490.4, a fraction off its session high of 4,490.5.
The SmallCap gave the best performance of all three indices, adding 6.3 at 2,183.1.
Over the year, the FTSE 100 has risen 429.2, or 11.63 per cent, the FTSE 250469.1, or 11.67 per cent, and the FTSE SmallCap 233.8, or 12 per cent.
The FTSE All Share index rose 11.6 per cent. Turnover in the stock market on Tuesday was once again badly affected by the low attendance levels in dealing rooms and also by the bad weather that caused travel problems across many parts of the south east of the country.
At 1.30 p.m., turnover in equities had reached 198.5 million shares. The value of customer business transacted on Monday came out at £548.3 million, compared with last Friday's £590.5 million.
Apart from the futures and OTC related business, much of the interest was promoted by newspaper and broker tips for the New Year.
Redland topped the FTSE 100 performance table, just pipping Enterprise Oil and National Grid, the last two stocks being boosted by the cold weather sweeping across Europe and the US.
The new year promises much for the stock market, with some observers forecasting a last minute burst of bid/merger activity ahead of the general election which is due to take place by May 1st.
More importantly for stock market traders, the last quarter of the year brings Big Bang Mark Two which sees a shift from quote driven to order driven trading in the FTSE 100 stocks.
