A mixture of strong performances from international markets, led by Wall Street overnight, plus a double-dose of encouraging domestic economic news helped London stocks back on to the upside track after losing ground for the previous two sessions. But London's gain did not come easily, with a wobbly opening by Wall Street yesterday coming close to wiping out all of London's gains before a late rally saw the FTSE 100 scramble back above the 6,200 mark.

With Wall Street finishing the overnight session in good heart and the Dow Jones Industrial Average only around 100 points away from its all-time high, it was only domestic economic news that could have upset the market at the outset. Those fears were quickly dispelled by a subdued retail sales report for July and by news that the Bank of England's monetary policy committee voted unanimously to leave interest rates unchanged at their last meeting on August 4th-5th.