A much better feeling emerged in London's equity market yesterday with the bulls making one of their rare appearances and driving the market sharply higher for the first time in around six trading sessions.
Having progressed throughout the day, the FTSE 100 peaked at 5,743.6, just before Wall Street kicked in, then dribbled back before dipping heavily during the last few minutes of official trading and struggling to remain in positive territory during the auction period. The index was finally 8.8 firmer at 5,680.4.
There were no such wobbles for the FTSE 250, which settled 20.6 higher at 6,411.2, not far short of its day's best of 6,414.0.
But the FTSE SmallCap was influenced by a sequence of profit warnings and poor results and closed 6.3 off at 3,055.4 having spent the whole session in negative territory. The Techmark 100, meanwhile, was the merest fraction lower, down 0.91 at 1,832.25.
The main driving force behind the market was the positive news from the US after Wall Street closed on Monday, with Oracle, the software giant, soothing some of the raw nerves exposed by the spate of profit warnings.
Oracle's fourth quarter numbers caused no shocks, and that news easily outweighed the impact of profit warnings earlier in the US session.
Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average managed a modest 21-point gain, the Nasdaq Composite, pre the Oracle news, dropped 39 points, losing the 2,000 level in the process.
Wall Street was in confident mood at the outset of trading yesterday, the Dow moving up strongly and posting a near three-figure gain. The Nasdaq easily recaptured the 2,000 mark.
But the Dow's initial strength was subsequently dissipated, turning into a 20-point decline as London closed. The Nasdaq, however, remained above 2,000.
Happily for London, there were no really market-damaging domestic stories affecting sentiment and no significant company news or economic data either.
But there was gloom among some of the telecoms stocks, especially Colt, whose shares continued their recent slide, finishing the worst of the FTSE 100 constituents.
