It was almost like the good old days in late 1999 for the stock market yesterday, with the TMT sectors spearheading a broad advance by all the main indices.

Such was the momentum behind the market the FTSE 100 posted its fourth gain out of the past five trading sessions that the 100 was catapulted back through the 5,800 level.

The 5,800 mark has been viewed as a critical point for the market if the recent recovery in confidence and sentiment is to be continued.

At the finish the FTSE 100 posted a gain of 139.7 at 5,803.0, its best level since March 12th.

That rise was eclipsed, however, by the performance of the Techmark 100 which shot up 87.32 to 1,836.40.

The FTSE 250, where the top 20 list was peppered with tech and tech-related stocks, jumped 66.1 to 6,109.4 and the FTSE SmallCap rose 19.7 to 2,842.39.

There were plenty of reasons behind the market's latest surge, most notably the strong showing by Wall Street.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average followed up Monday's 54-point gain with renewed vigour, bursting back through the 10,000 level and posting a 210-point gain at one stage.

The Nasdaq Composite was also on the march, pushing up almost three figures as the London market closed for the day.

US markets demonstrated their relief that there was no fresh bad news from the corporate sector or the economy.

Closer to home, the TMT rally was led by Marconi, whose long-awaited statement did not include a profits warning as had been feared for many weeks, while telecoms were boosted by an upgrade by a leading broker.

Marconi reassured the market that it would reach current market earnings forecasts, although it also announced the expected job losses as part of a global restructuring.

In its latest European strategy piece Credit Suisse First Boston said: "Equities look to us to be discounting a larger fall in earnings than we expect to materialise.