Britain's blue-chip shares jumped to six-week highs this afternon, helped by a strong showing for engineering group Invensys and British Airways, as well as hopes of a better start for US stock markets.
However, shares in health and beauty retailer Boots slid 3.3 per cent to be the top FTSE faller as traders detected signs that its share buyback, announced in March, was slowing down.
By 2 p.m. the FTSE 100 share index was 1.4 per cent or 59.6 points higher at 4,428.1 points, off an earlier high of 4,466.4 points but recovering its 58-point fall yesterday. Market turnover totalled around 1.3 billion shares.
Dealers were quick to downplay the FTSE move, saying it was hard to judge the mood of the market when volumes remained relatively low and few fundamentals seemed to be moving shares.
Invensys shares were the top risers on the FTSE 100, up 9.1 per cent. Analysts and traders said the move continued to be fuelled by increased confidence in the company after it announced a disposal on Monday and edged closer to meeting its fundraising target of £1.5 billion.
British Airways rose nine pence to 159p, boosted by news of higher profits at 21 per cent held Australian airline Qantas Airways and a strong operating profit from German airline Lufthansa.
Analysts said Boots appeared to be missing the support of its share buyback programme.
Boots said in March it would return 300 million pounds to shareholders by buying back just over five per cent of the company's share capital.