The return to work from the long bank holiday weekend brought further gains to London's equity market.
But it was mostly hard work all the way for the leaders, with the FTSE 100 index, the UK market's benchmark, struggling to keep its head above water for much of the day, burdened by renewed weakness in some of the super-stocks, such as BT and BP Amoco.
A weak opening by Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 100 points not long into the US session, also kept a tight rein on London.
It was a different matter, however, for the other indices, the 250, SmallCap and Techmark 100, all of which looked secure throughout the session.
Official confirmation that the general election will be held on June 7th had been well flagged in the press for some time and came as no surprise to the market.
And dealers refused to get carried away with enthusiasm over the prospect of another cut in domestic interest rates after this week's meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.
Most economists take the view that the MPC will chop 25 basis points off UK interest rates, with some saying that an even deeper cut, 50 basis points, cannot be ruled out.
At the finish, the FTSE 100 gathered itself sufficiently to end the session with a 16.1 gain at 5,886.4, having been up 23.4 and down 27.7 at the day's best and worst levels.
No such problems for the FTSE 250, which, fuelled by big gains right across the market spectrum, finished 49.8 higher at a day's best of 6,495.4. Similarly the FTSE SmallCap gradually worked its way higher to close at a day's best of 3,089, up 10.9.
The Techmark 100 rose 20.26 to 2,071.42, having reached a high of 2,077.63.
Behind the FTSE 100's struggle was another dose of weakness in BT, the telecoms group, whose shares were under constant fire after reports suggesting the group intended bringing forward its full-year results from May 17th to tomorrow.
The reports also suggested that those numbers would be accompanied by a package of measures to smooth the path of an expected bumper rights issue to reduce the company's crippling debt burden.
