NOT even some mildly disappointing inflation numbers for last month could put a dent in an equity market that staged a determined but ultimately unsuccessful attack on its all-time intra-day high.

Apart from the domestic inflation figures, and a sprinkling of individual underperformers across the market, it was a good day for share prices.

It was a very big day for corporate news, with no less than seven Footsie companies reporting and all of them delivering well-received figures. Some of them such as British Aerospace and Legal & General, saw their share prices notch up all-time record closes. BTR rose sharply after the continuing restructuring of its businesses. On the downside, ICI suffered from a broker downgrade while TLG, formerly Thorn Lighting, fell heavily after a profits warning.

Dealers said the interim reporting season overall has generally come out better than many strategists had expected and that subsequent expected earnings updates would prove sufficient to drive Footsie through the 4,000 level, possibly in the short term.

But one dealer said a move beyond 4,000 would almost certainly attract profit-taking.

Turnover at 6 p.m. was 691 million shares. Customer business on Wednesday was worth £1.57 billion sterling.