The FTSE finished the day strongly up 1.47% to 6087.40 driven by a powerful performance from financials which dominated the top five.
Alliance & Leicester was ahead of the pack up 8.11% on bid talks while Standard Chartered and Standard Life were close behind. Utilities companies were laggards with International Power falling 3.34% and Scottish & Southern Energy down 1.34%. In the US, Wall Street had a rocky start to the day on the back of disappointing data but the index rallied and the Dow Jones is now up 30 at 12,600. The market was helped by an early rise from IBM as its bosses announced a further $15bn in share buybacks. IFAonline
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