After narrowly missing out on a closing high on Monday, the FTSE 100 joined the FTSE All-Share and FTSE 250 in hitting record closes yesterday, with London's benchmark index, the 100, closing a net 28.6 ahead at 6,620.6, a fraction below the session best of 6,620.8.

Domestic economic news caused no problems to the market, with industrial production and manufacturing output data in line with market forecasts. London struggled for much of the session, rallying briefly over the lunchtime period and moving into positive territory before slipping back ahead of Wall Street and then advancing in good style to finish with a flourish.

Turnover in equities was never more than routine, eventually reaching 1.08 billion, with non-FTSE 100 stocks accounting for 55 per cent of the overall figure.