The buyers returned in force to London's equity market yesterday, the last trading session of the first quarter, shrugging off concerns about Tuesday's rather hesitant performance and Wall Street's near three-figure fall overnight.
The FTSE 100 Index launched a determined assault on its intra-day and closing highs, but ultimately missed out on both, finishing the session 31.2 ahead at 6,295.3. However, the blue chip benchmark did extend its sequence of consecutive gains to five days, over which period it has risen 278.6 points, or 4.6 per cent. Over the quarter, it gained 7 per cent.
Take-over stories fizzed right across the market, with the pharmaceutical stocks again being chased higher amid strong speculation that Glaxo Wellcome will tie up another big deal.
BAT shares were hurt by the big slide in Philip Morris on Wall Street overnight, after the group lost a US court case involving a lung cancer victim. Ladbroke was unsettled by a handful of earnings downgrades after its take-over of Stakis and the Stanley Leisure profits warning.
The FTSE 250 ended 0.6 points lower at 5,475.2. The FTSE SmallCap, meanwhile, finished the day a respectable but rather sedate 3.5 points higher at 2,398.4.
Turnover in equities remained encouraging, once again topping the one billion shares mark and eventually reaching 1.06 billion shares, with non-FTSE 100 shares accounting for 54 per cent of the total.
