There was a firm feel to trading in London, where dealers took their cue from a strong bounce on Wall Street to push prices higher across the board.
The FTSE 100 index came to rest 39.2 points higher at 6,238.8, having travelled as high as 6,268 at one stage. During London trading, the Dow Jones index staged a 1.5% rally after Thursday's bout of selling, while the Nasdaq composite jumped more than 2% as the markets took stronger than expected US jobs data in their stride.
The mood remained up-beat, despite the concerns of some strategists and economists that the Federal Reserve might go for an aggressive 0.5% rise in interest rates next week.
The oil sector was particularly strong yesterday, with BP Amoco leading the pack, up 29p at 588p ahead of next week's figures, and Shell ticking 20.5p higher to 527.5p in sympathy.
The eye-catcher among the big tech stocks proved to be Marconi, which jumped from 801p to 896p. Dealers pointed to strong first quarter results and a confident trading statement yesterday from its French rival, Alcatel.
The amateur punters' tech favourites ARM Holdings and Baltimore Technology were also on the move, rallying 56.5p to 718p and 147p to £72.66 respectively.
Business services group Capita ran up from £15.27 to £16.42 after winning a government education contract.
The extraordinary progress of fibreoptics group Bookham Technology resumed, with the shares spiked above £40 at one stage before settling 562.5p higher at £36.75. The firm has been on the market for just a month but already seems headed for the Footsie.
But against this, one or two former technology darlings are still being left to languish after the recent sell-off in the sector. Geo Interactive, for example, which was trading at £36.70 earlier this year, lost 50p to £10.65 yesterday.
Elsewhere, having escaped the clutches of France's Lafarge, Blue Circle announced further details of the plan to return £800m to shareholders. It is starting with a £400m tender offer and shareholders will receive a circular next week.
Investors have until the end of the month to say how many shares they would like to sell back to Blue Circle at a minimum of 430p. The market price of the stock slipped from 411p to 408p yesterday.
