Investors celebrated as Greece PM Alexis Tsipras submitted a new austerity plan to ensure the monetary taps stay turned on.
FTSE 100 rose 98 points to 6,680, with other markets in Europe also registering strong gains, as investors digested what after weeks of wrangling seemed to be capitulation by the Greek government to creditor demands.
Commentators noted the plan would raise €4bn in taxes than the one rejected by the Greek public in last week’s referendum.
Tsipras said he had received a mandate in the referendum to negotiate a better deal, not to take the country out of the eurozone.
If the proposals are accepted, Greece may get a €54bn three year loan.
London’s blue chips climbed, possibly in relieve that the seemingly never-ending saga may be over, at least for a few weeks.
On the market itself, British Airways owner IAG (LON:IAG) has seemingly tied up the acquisition of Aer Lingus after Ryanair (LON:RYA) agreed to accept the offer.
Ryanair owns 29.8% of its rival having being thwarted in its own attempts to buy it.
Shares in IAG rose 3% to 529p, while Ryanair (LON:RYA) added 2% to 12.38p.
Top hotels are an expensive commodity, but if you are selling it’s not so bad.
Intercontinental Hotels (LON:IHG) gained 3.1% to 2,687p as it sold the Intercontinental Hong Kong to a consortium of investors for US$938mln. The buyers have also generously agreed to fund a significant refurbishment of the Hotel while IHG has a 37-year management contract.
In other news, Tunisia - the African country - comes under the spotlight after Britain has now decided to pull out UK tourists there in the wake of the atrocity two weeks ago.
Tui (LON:TTG) shrugged it off and rose 26p to, while Thomas Cook nudged up 1p to 127.7p.
Insurers got a boost from a sector wide upgrade by Barclays. Prudential rose 34p to 1,601p
Meanwhile, the tensions between telecoms titan BT (LON:BT.A) and Sky (LON:SKY) ratcheted up a notch as the former called on Ofcom to tackle Sky's dominance of the UK pay-TV market and asked to change the scope of the regulator's review. BT (LON:BT.A) rose to 453.1p while Sky (LON:SKY) added 17p to 1,061p
In oil news, FTSE250 services group Petrofac (LON:PFC) saw shares add almost 3% as it secured a big US$780mln contract from Kuwait Oil Company.
Among the small caps, fund manager Neil Woodford continues to splash his investors’ money in the biotech sector.
The star fund manager is putting up almost half of ReNeuron’s (LON:RENE) mega £68mln fund raise.
His reputation is such the shares rose by 20% to 5.85p despite the company claiming it was the largest amount raised by a biotech of its type this year.
Sirius Minerals (LON:SXX) expects to complete a definitive feasibility study for the York Potash project by the fourth quarter. Project financing, for the mine’s first stage, is expected to follow in the first quarter of 2016. Shares fell 13% to 18.5p.
Mwana Africa (LON:MWA) was a big riser, heading up over 25% to 1.34p as it instigated a round of head office cost cutting following boardroom changes last month.
The Zimbabwe -focused nickel and gold miner has made twelve positions redundant, including a senior manager and corporate office staff. Advisers and consultants have also been cut back, it said.