Strength in mining stocks helped push London's leading shares through the psychologically important 6,000 level with the FTSE 100 index closing up 56 points at 6015.2 points.
Kazakhmys, the Kazakhstani copper miner, was the day's biggest riser, up 88.5p at £10.42, after reporting a rise in annual profits, before exceptional charges, to $848m (£486m) from $554m as sales rose 106% to $2.6bn.
Investors were particularly pleased with Kazakhmys' comments about the coming year, in which the company promised that the slightly lower copper production levels recorded in the first two months of the coming year - due to adverse weather conditions - were not "representative" of the year as a whole.
"Supply and demand fundamentals suggest continued copper price strength throughout 2006. We anticipate that 2006 production of copper ... will be moderately higher than 2005," it said.
The brokers Credit Suisse said the results were just ahead of expectations and upped its target price for the stock to £11.00 from 950p.
Mining stocks filled the first six slots on the FTSE 100 leaderboard, behind Kazakhmys came Rio Tinto, up 150p at £29.81; Antofagasta, up 102p at £21.60; Xstrata, up 88p at £18.92; BHP Billiton, up 48.5p at £10.715 and Anglo American, up 97p at £22.46.
But Compass lost 3p to 229p as a second rival firm - the Monaco-based ES-KO International - filed a suit in the US courts over its catering contracts with the United Nations, seeking $500m. Its Swiss rival Supreme Foodservice is already suing the company for $125m.
Elsewhere, bid speculation continued to swirl around the market, helping support the blue-chip index. Royal Bank of Scotland was again in the frame as traders looked for an American name not already touted around as a possible buyer of the business. Earlier in the week it was Citigroup, then smaller the North Carolina-based rival Wachovia. Yesterday some in the City were touting First Union as a buyer. Any Google search would, of course, reveal that First Union merged with Wachovia in 2001. Alliance & Leicester added 27p to £12.17 on continued speculation of a bid.
Among the second-line financials, shares in London Scottish Bank leapt 8p - or almost 8% - to 112p on talk that the consumer lender is about to receive a bid at 130p a share, which would value the business at £185m. The bidder's identity remains unclear but London Scottish has two active investors on its shareholder roster. The Aim-listed Promethean, flat at 104.5p, holds almost a 4% stake. Promethean was built up by the former Bank of Scotland director Sir Peter Burt, and run by his son Michael, to buy out listed businesses. Also on the shareholder list is the US investor Steel Partners with just over 4%.
London Scottish, which earlier this week said trading was in-line with expectations, looks ripe for a takeover. It is going through a change of management after its chairman designate, Alan Benzie, turned down the job. The chairman, Trevor Furlong, is sticking around until a replacement is found.
Away from the main index, the FTSE 250 closed up 34.3 points at 9,855.1 points with the small cap index up 10.9 points at 3,610.6. Informa, the publishing-to-conferences group, added 17.25p to 487p on talk of a private equity bid at 600p, which would value the group at £2.5bn. Insiders, however, denied there is any action.
Alpha Airports added 4.5p to 73p after the aviation support services group reported a rise in annual profits to £18.4m from £13.1m. The rise was tempered by an update on Alpha's case, originally revealed in January, against a sub-contractor it reckons has been defrauding the business. Alpha estimated the Informa fraud at £2.5m, the top end of its initial estimate.
EasyJet eased 8p to 354p as Merrill Lynch placed 6m shares at 353p a share while Thus lost 2.5p to 165.5p after an uninspiring trading update while Parity lost 0.61p to close at 1.375p - a 31% fall - after the debt-laden IT services firm announced plans to raise £14.7m in a deeply discounted rights issue that will leave investors with just 15% of the firm.
Dana Petroleum lost 18p to 1050p. After the market closed, Gaz de France said it was cancelling a deal to sell Dana a 20% stake in an Algerian gas field after objections from the Algerian state oil and gas company, Sonatrach, but will go ahead with asset swaps in Britain, Egypt and Mauritania.
On Aim, Immunodiagnostic Systems Holdings added 6.5p to 117.5p after the medical test kit firm said in a statement that trading had met expectations. Shares in Georgica lurched 10.5p higher to close at 140p on talk that trading at the owner of snooker clubs and ten-pin bowling alleys has been good since its annual results. Some in the market, however, noted that Georgica, whose management are considering a refinancing or possible sale, has been busy buying up its own shares recently.
Finally, expect a solid showing next week from Goldenport as the shipping company joins the market after advisers HSBC yesterday closed a bookbuilding exercise with strong support from potential investors. The stock will list at 235p a share in a flotation to raise about £60m for the business.
Open to offers Sesame
Misys fell 5% yesterday as Kevin Lomax's IT software and services empire said it had failed to find a buyer for its Sesame division, the latest in a line of setbacks. The future ownership of Sesame, which supplies support services to Britain's legion of independent financial advisers, has been under discussion since Sesame was created in 2003. Plans to float the business had to be shelved as IFAs went through "depolarisation" - the rejigging of rules on selling products. Once the sector settled down, Misys looked for a buyer but admitted yesterday: "It is not possible to achieve a sale price for Sesame that reflects good value." So Misys is clinging on to it - for now. Misys, which saw its shares drop 20% after a shock profit warning last autumn, closed down 11.5p at 223p.