The absence of any substantial American interest yesterday - US markets were closed for Thanksgiving - was viewed by many traders as providing London's equity market with some much-needed breathing space after Wednesday's steep declines.
Activity in London was always likely to be subdued because of the US holiday that is set to continue today, with only a cursory session expected in New York.
The gain recorded in the FTSE 100 was not mirrored by the other main FTSE indices and certainly not by the Techmark 100 index, which continued its downward spiral and extended its decline from its March record to almost 51 per cent, before picking up towards the close.
A number of the recently-battered tech/telecom stocks embarked on a decent rally - the five top-performing stocks in the FTSE 100 came from the tech/telecom sector but there was a good deal of selling pressure exerted on other TMT stocks.
There was plenty of domestic economic news to keep the market busy, as well as some mostly bullish company news, which dealers were thankful for and which produced some outstanding individual market performances right across the board.
The unrevised third-quarter gross domestic product figure, up 0.7 per cent, quarter-on-quarter, plus details of global trade for September and non-EU trade for October, came as no real surprise to the market and were said to have had no impact on sentiment.
The broad market view is that UK interest rates will remain on hold for the time being with the next shift expected to be downwards.
The main casualty of the lack of US interest in the market was turnover, which saw volumes contract and the overall turnover total at the 6 p.m. count come out at 1.4 billion shares, the lowest daily level for a week or so. Few expect anything but the lightest possible trading session in the US today, with Europe expected to be left to its own devices.
By the close of a relatively subdued trading session the FTSE 100 had rallied 65.9 to 6,287.3, its best of the day.
The 250 settled 6.7 off at 6,545.0, having recorded a 17.9 decline in mid-afternoon. Downside pressure in the SmallCap was reasonably minor, with the index finishing 3.4 down at 3,266.7. And although the Techmark 100 was well off its session low, it was still 21.09 lower at 2,844.51.
The FTSE 100's late surge was mostly driven by big gains in the two leading telecoms stocks, Vodafone Group and BT, but was also helped along by currency shifts that saw sterling rise against the euro and retreat against the dollar.
