Rapid progress for fourth consecutive session

The start of a crucial week for global equities saw London's stock market make rapid progress for the fourth consecutive session, amid growing expectations of a hat-trick of interest rate cuts in the US, the UK and Europe this week.

The FTSE 100 index took another of its now familiar runs at the 5,200 level, which has provided stiff resistance in that direction.

At the end of trading, the 100 index posted a 79.6 gain at 5,209.1, its highest closing level since September 5th, three sessions before the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. Yesterday's rise extended the gain over the past four sessions to 205.5, or 4.1 per cent.

Just as the interest rate hopes built up last week in the wake of a series of grim economic data - especially last Friday's startlingly weak non-farm payroll which showed the destruction of 415,000 US jobs in October - so it was yesterday, with grim economic news on both sides of the Atlantic.

Economists at Merrill Lynch forecast a 50 basis points cut in US rates, and 25 basis points reductions by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee and the European Central Bank.

British Airways, one of the market's most active stocks and the worst performer in the FTSE 100 throughout the morning session, was depressed by a swingeing downgrade by Merrill Lynch before staging a remarkable fight back to finish as second-best performer in the index. The rally followed October traffic figures that were slightly better than the market had been going for.

Meanwhile, no-frills airline Ryanair surpassed City expectations after it reported a 39 per cent increase in first-half post-tax results and gained 78p to 706p.

AstraZeneca rallied another 73p to £32.85, making up all the weakness caused by the stock's recent two-week slide. The shares had fallen on concerns about its anti-cholesterol treatment and the impending expiry of the patent on its ulcer treatment.

Defensive stocks were not the flavour of the day and positive broker comment was insufficient to lift BAT. The shares fell 5p to 570p even though CSFB said investors should use recent share price weakness in the tobacco group as a buying opportunity. The shares fell on Friday amid reports that the Indian Supreme Court had banned smoking in public places.