It was another session of sparkling all-round gains for London's equity market yesterday. The FTSE 100 index finished the day at a record closing high and looked set fair to begin another attack on its intraday high of 6,539.9. The FTSE 250 and SmallCap indices crept ever closer to their peaks.

A stunning advance by Wall Street - where the Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 200 points not long after US trading began - saw the FTSE 100 move into overdrive, finishing 94.7 higher at a closing record of 6,515.3.

And the broader FTSE All-Share index, which briefly moved through the 3,000 level last Wednesday before slipping back, surged to close above that mark for the first time, reaching a record intraday and closing figure of 3,010.25, up 40.5 or 1.4 per cent.

Some market strategists warned that the markets may have become overheated. Mr Richard Jeffrey at CCF Charterhouse said: "There has to be an underlying fear that markets are now more momentum-driven - ratings are too extreme."

Continuing the pattern of recent sessions, the FTSE 250 index took the honours for outperformance during the early part of the day, with the second-liners attracting a fresh burst of support as the cyclical stocks remained the focus of attention.

At the close, the mid-cap index was 53.2 higher at 5,849.4, its fifth straight winning performance and a gain of 290.5 or 5.2 per cent during that time. Not to be outdone, the FTSE SmallCap leapt 22.5 to 2,489.6, also a fifth consecutive gain, a winning streak during which it has risen 71.74 or 3 per cent.