FTSE100 closed out the week over 91 points higher as traders cheered latest moves in Greece.
But not all were so happy about the latest Greek submission to its EU creditors, with the Deutsche Boerse boss questioning whether Athens would stick to its pledges.
FTSE100 closed at 6,673, up 1,39% with financial stocks Prudential (LON:PRU) and Standard Life (LON:STAN) buoyed by a note from Barclays, which lifted target prices on both stocks.
The Pru rose 2.36% to 1,603.5p, while Standard Life added 4.22% to 452.3p.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras submitted a new reform package last night, which ministers in the Eurozone must agree to and it is yet to be debated by the Greek Parliament.
It left many confused as the measures would raise €4bn in taxes more than the one rejected by the Greek public in last week’s referendum.
If the proposals are accepted, Greece may get a €54bn three year loan.
A week is a long time in financial news, and politics, it seems, as Chris Beauchamp, at IG, said: "The week is ending on a sunny note in London, and not just weather wise.
"All the problems of the past week appear to be slipping away. Chinese equities have bounced, Greece seems to have bowed to the inevitable and acceded to its creditors’ demands, and even the dollar is moving lower thanks to diminishing fears of a US rate hike."
On the corporate front, 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 3.21% to 531p, while Ryanair (LON:RYA) added 2.23% to 12.38p.
Top hotels are an expensive commodity, but if you are selling it’s not so bad.
Intercontinental Hotels (LON:IHG) gained 3.07% to 2,686p 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 3.66% to1,077p, while Thomas Cook nudged up 0.87% to 127.7p.
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 14.05% to 455.1p while Sky (LON:SKY) added 2.01% to 1,065p
In oil news, FTSE250 services group Petrofac (LON:PFC) saw shares add 1.82%% 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 almost 18% to 5.75p 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 10.59% to 19p.
Mwana Africa (LON:MWA) was a big riser, heading up 25.58% to 1.35p 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.
Another notable gainer was tech group Proxama (LON:PROX), which gained 14.52% to 1.77p.
Bio pharma Motif Bio (LON:MTFB) shares eased around 2% to 62.5p in London as it said a former employee had exercised share options at US$0.2088 per share for a total of around US$17.2mln.