The most powerful performance in the FTSE 100 came from Nycomed Amersham, whose stock raced up 38p or 6.1 per cent to 660p.
Behind that startling performance was ongoing bullishness from several broking houses, notably Williams de Broe, which has been pushing the stock for some time.
Peter Cartwright, pharmaceuticals analyst at Williams de Broe, said the market had recognised that the companies who will prosper are those "selling the tools and equipment into a business which is increasingly lucrative. Nycomed Amersham is a one-stop shop selling integrated services, incorporating gene sequencing, genotyping, RNA analysis and proteomics through to drug screening, toxity and manufacturing. There is massive embedded value." There was further strong demand for some of the perceived stock market winners from the launch of the sequencing of the human genome.
Lehman Brothers was quick off the mark in producing a powerful recommendation for Oxford GlycoSciences in the wake of the human genome news.
The broker's pharmaceuticals team described Oxford GlycoSciences as "the best proteomics play in the post-genomic era" labelling the shares a "buy" and putting a price target of £26 on the stock.
"The drug discovery bottleneck has shifted from genomics to functional genomics," said Lehman. "Companies with the tools to determine the protein encoded by each gene, the function of that protein and whether it plays a role in a particular disease, will be in the spotlight."
Oxford GlycoScience shares rocketed to fourth place in the 250 performance table, finishing a net 77 1/2p, or 4.3 per cent, ahead at £18.62 1/2. Over the past two sessions the shares have risen 135p.
Mining stocks were strongly supported all day, after a positive note on the sector as well as recent supportive suggestions from other brokers.
Dresdner Kleinwort Benson was the prime mover, upgrading its sector rating to overweight from neutral after the recent share price weakness in its constituents. The broker's prime call is Billiton, which it shifted to a straight "buy" and is positive too on Rio Tinto and Anglo American.
Billiton rushed up 10p, or 4 per cent, to 264p, and Rio Tinto, currently involved in a hostile bid for North, the Australian mining group, raced up 30p to £10.38.
There was a sharp difference of opinion in the banking sector, where Lloyds TSB and Alliance & Leicester continued to suffer from bearish activity but where Barclays, the two Scottish banks and Abbey National made good progress.
Lloyds TSB's latest problems stemmed from a down grade by Merrill Lynch, which took the stock off its buy list after nudging its earnings forecast down by 4 per cent.
