The FTSE 100 has closed at its highest level since the middle of January, and after some to-ing and fro-ing during the day, it finally breached and stayed above the 6000 barrier after a couple of attempts.
Miners led the way - not surprisingly given the surprise $14bn raid on Rio Tinto's shares by China's Chinalco aided by US group Alcoa. The two have bought 12% at £60 a share, potentially scuppering BHP Billiton's proposed 3-for-1 share offer for Rio.
What with that, the Microsoft bid for Yahoo and talk of a bail out for the US monoline insurers, even bad US jobless figures could not spoil the party. By the close the FTSE 100 was 149.4 points higher at 6029.2, with Rio up 13% to £56.
So after the FTSE's worst ever January, February has got off to a brighter start. But the markets continue to be volatile, and more bad news on the US economy or the credit crunch could soon have investors running for the hills again.
