The last full trading session before Christmas - the market closes today at 12.30 - brought plenty of good cheer for London stocks, with all the main FTSE indices rushing up to record intraday and closing levels.

And once again it was the telecoms/high technology/Internet areas of the market that were in the forefront of the latest upsurge, ignoring the constant flow of warnings about over-valuation from highly respected analysts and industry observers.

Although finishing well below its best of the day, the FTSE 100 nevertheless showed a 48.2 gain at a closing record of 6,776.8, having been driven through the 6,800 level and hit a peak 6,803.1 around lunchtime, when the market began to anticipate a strong opening on Wall Street. The FTSE 250 ran up to 6,379.4, before settling a net 15.8 up at 6,378.7. The SmallCap climbed a further 10.4 to a record intraday and closing high of 3,052.3.

The general view of senior traders was that, barring any Y2K disasters, the FTSE 100 would drive through 7,000 in the short term.