Miners good, mortgage banks bad was the theme as the markets closed higher but off their peaks.
A revival in the copper price lifted Kazakhmys by 7% and Antofagasta by nearly 6%. But Northern Rock fell 8.4% to 139.2p and Alliance & Leicester, despite denying yet more rumours of funding difficulties, ended 21p lower at 669p.
The FTSE 100 ended the day in positive territory, up 69.7 points at 6432.1, while the FTSE 250 closed up 150.7 points at 11,070.9.
Property group Minerva was a notable speculative feature, up 30.5p to 196p on stakebuilding talk.
Finally, to an even more gossipy tale, this time about equipment hire group Ashtead, which fell 1.5p to 95.5p. Traders said there was talk that bears were shorting the company's shares in the wake of the rumoured collapse of a $4bn bid for US rival United Rentals over concerns about the economic outlook. One suggested Ashtead's shares could fall as far as 80p.
