With 19 of yesterday's top 20 best performers in the FTSE 100 fully paid up members of the TMT club and most of the top performers in the more junior FTSE indices from the same areas, it was clear that there was a substantial shift in sentiment in London's equity market yesterday.
The real upside thrust behind the performance of the FTSE 100, however, came from Vodafone AirTouch, the London market's biggest company, whose shares accelerated yesterday, racing up almost 9 per cent and accounting for well over half the eventual rise in the FTSE 100. The latest upsurge in Vodafone shares reflected the prospects of a bumper price for Orange, the mobile phones group it inherited with its takeover of Mannesmann.
The FTSE 100 made progress for the third consecutive session, eventually closing a net 112.5 higher at 6,231.1, only a fraction off the day's best, as the market celebrated a sparkling performance by US markets overnight and some much-needed news in the high tech arena.
And there were equally impressive performances from the rest of the London market's indices, all of which have been hammered in recent weeks as the TMT stocks have fallen away for a variety of reasons.
The FTSE 250 index moved up 62.1 to 6,153.8, while the FTSE SmallCap index rose 13.0 to 3,157.9 and the recently battered Techmark 100, which had been crushed by the sudden shift in sentiment since its March 6th high, put on 133.8 to 2,998.11.
The all-encompassing FTSE All-Share index moved up 48.46 to 2,961.20.
Dealers said there was a much better feel to the London market after its recent traumas. Turnover improved and sentiment was much better, they said, with a couple of takeover bids in the smallcap areas of the market helping to boost morale around the trading desks. The Footsie's move through a couple of crucial levels, 6,140 and 6,200, was also seen as adding to the increasingly bullish feeling.
And there were no worrying economic developments to unsettle the markets, either in Europe or the US.
The Confederation of British Industry's latest Monthly Survey of Industrial Trends, although highlighting rising domestic orders for manufactured goods still pointed to falling export orders, although there was no big market impact.
Turnover in equities crept up to 1.67 billion shares, a figure given a substantial lift by further big activity in Vodafone AirTouch, where turnover reached 290 million shares, over 17 per cent of the total.
