On a day when a burst of takeover activity was directed at the London Stock Exchange itself, the recent positive mood around the City's trading desks remained intact.
But there were moments during the trading session when the market looked increasingly uncomfortable and likely to tumble into negative territory.
The FTSE 100 did dip into the red for a few moments, but dealers said the underlying positive sentiment was never punctured for long.
"It has been quiet, as you would expect after a long bank holiday and with the prospect of a long weekend in the US looming up. But the sell-side pressures are not substantial and market-makers are happy to take on the sellers at the moment," said one dealer.
The FTSE 100 finished what turned out to be another subdued session in turnover terms in reason ably good heart, closing a net 22.6 firmer at 6,586.3.
At its best of the session, during the first hour or so of trading, the index had sprinted back through the 6,600 level and looked set fair for a strong performance.
It built happily on the solid showing of Wall Street on Monday, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average rushed up 61 points and the Nasdaq 27 points.
But the impact of two acquisitions in the mining sector, involving Billiton and Rio Tinto, saw shares in both stocks on the rack and sharply lower by mid-morning. The index's early gains were completely wiped out.
Thereafter the leaders staged a good rally, and shrugged off the debilitating effects of a lacklustre opening performance by Wall Street where the Dow was off 50 points at worst and the Nasdaq was broadly neutral.
While the leading index had to contend with the sell-off in the mining leaders, the mid and smallcaps and especially the high tech stocks made rapid progress, injecting renewed vigour into the All-Share index.
The FTSE 250, helped by strong performances by many of its high tech constituents, such as Baltimore, Infobank, and Kingston Com- munications, raced up to close 33.0 up at 6,955.7.
Similarly the FTSE SmallCap gradually gained ground to finish up 8.1 at 3,499.3.
The best individual performance, however, came from the Techmark 100 which shot ahead to close 80.81 up at 3,816.20.
While the mining leaders did their best to restrain the FTSE 100 index, another resources sector, the oils, that provided a substantial cushion to the index, as crude oil prices remained well bid above the $30 a barrel.
