A pre-Christmas rally today helped blue-chip shares complete their best week in three years as sentiment was buoyed by indications that the US Federal Reserve is in no hurry to raise interest rates.
The FTSE 100 Index climbed 79.3 points, or more than 1%, to 6545.3, adding to a 2% surge in the previous session, spurred on by a bullish Wall Street.
It meant the top-flight closed the week 3.9% higher, adding £62 billion in value to London's top 100 listed firms.
However, it was only a partial recovery from last week when the FTSE 100 endured its worst week in three years, tumbling by 6.6%, equivalent to a drop in value of £112 billion.
Today's rally came after New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday posted a 2.4% gain, its biggest one-day surge in three years. The Dow Jones was flat as it held on to the increases in the latest session.
European markets, which also enjoyed a strong Thursday, were held back today by tough trading for healthcare stocks and Italian banks. Germany's Dax and France's Cac 40 were both in the red.
In currencies, the greenback bounced back after being weighed down earlier in the week by the prospect of low interest rates for longer.
Sterling fell a cent to just over 1.56 US dollars but was up marginally against the single currency at a little under 1.28 euros.
In London equities, oil heavyweights were among the winners with the price of a barrel of Brent crude stabilising at around 60 US dollars over the last few days.
BP added 10.4p to 413p while Royal Dutch Shell was up 63.5p to 2222.5p, completing a strong week for each of the pair. Exploration firm Tullow Oil topped the FTSE 100 with a rise of 7%, or 27.2p, to 424.2p.
Meanwhile, beleaguered Tesco enjoyed a strong session after recent lows though in the wake of sliding sales, profit warnings and an accounting scandal it is still more than 40% off its price a year ago. Shares were up 5%, or 9.6p, to 185.4p today.
Its rivals were also gaining as CBI figures indicated that grocers were the strongest performers as the retail sector enjoyed its strongest growth in nearly 27 years.
Morrisons climbed nearly 4%, or 6.2p, to 176.2p, while Sainsbury's was 2%, or 4.8p, ahead at 239.8p. High street bellwether Marks & Spencer lifted 3%, or 13.5p, to 476p.
Sky was among the losers after Ofcom launched a consultation into the way it is obliged to offer key sports channels to pay-TV rivals under regulations described as "flawed" by the broadcaster.
Shares in the company fell 11p to 889p after the regulator said its initial assessment was that given its grip on TV football, limiting the distribution of Sky's content could harm competition in the market.
The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were Tullow Oil, up 27.2p to 424.2p, Tesco up 9.6p to 185.4p, Randgold Resources up 187p to 4431p and Morrisons up 6.2p to 176.2p.
The biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 Index were TUI down 31p to 1096p, SSE down 24p to 1624p, Smiths Group down 14p to 1072p and Sky down 11p to 889p.
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