Not even some intense profit-taking could prevent the FTSE 100 index from hitting new closing and intra-day records for the third straight session and from posting its fifth consecutive rise yesterday.
For much of the session, however, the leaders had come under serious selling from profit-takers, keen to book some of the week's exceptional gains.
Dealers attributed the late surge to heavy buying of Footsie constituents by Nomura, the Japanese stockbroker. The buying was also linked to a number of end-January expiries of over-the-counter derivatives products.
At the close, Footsie had gained 36.1 at 5,458.5, extending the rise over the past five days to 277.1 or 5.3 per cent.
The general view of traders was that the market would extend its current bull run into next week and beyond if, as many expect, interest rates are left on hold in the UK, the US and Germany next week when their decision makers on interest rate policy scheduled to meet.
Second-liners and smaller stocks were left behind by the late flurry of gains in the leaders. The FTSE 250 pushed 23.2 higher to 4,861.5, up 54.6 or 1.1 per cent over the week, while the FTSE SmallCap nudged 4.5 higher to 2,372.7, up 15.7 or 0.7 per cent over the period.
