A LONDON market that appeared tired and lifeless first thing was catapulted into new territory by a raft of encouraging US statistics.
The Footsie burst through a level perceived by some chartists as a key resistance point and hit a new intra-day high. It maintained its strength to end the day 35.3 up at 3,967.9, a new closing peak.
Also, the FT-SE-A All-Share index rose 14.86 points to a new high of 1,956.76. The FT-SE Mid-250 Index was dragged up 21 to 4,453.3. And, in the derivatives market, futures and options were heavily traded.
It was very much a game of two halves. Early trading had an after the party feel about it, with prices languishing as traders tidied their books ahead of the weekend.
The past few weeks have seen market-makers run very tight books on the expectation that the current run must come to a halt soon. That general shortage of stock has meant buying interest can lead to an exaggerated rise.
And that interest came with the latest retail sales and inflation figures from the US which showed that the trend for low US inflation was still on track. Consequently, British government bonds lifted by around a point, and blue chip shares took off.
The only real blot on the feel-good factor was in food retailing where concerns of a renewed price war saw most supermarket stocks marked lower.
