A flood of corporate numbers and a bounceback in oil prices helped to push up top-flight London shares on Wednesday.
Results from the likes of Barclays (LON:BARC) and Sky (LON:SKY) and a recovery in the price of a barrel of US light crude gave traders cause for optimism.
Shares in Barclays rose 5.8p to 285.4p after the troubled bank posted higher profits and said it was speeding up its shake-up.
Sky's stock lifted 17p to 1141p as the satellite broadcaster, which is under attack from rival BT, posted a 96,000 annual rise in broadband customers.
BP (LON:BP.)was in the black by 3.3p to 395.95p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) spurted 4.5p to 1757p as US light crude rose 0.59p to US$47.98, although Brent crude was slightly down.
The FTSE 100 Index rose 32.93p points to 6588.
Asian markets were volatile again with declines in both Tokyo and Hong Kong. But US markets rose despite the ongoing pre-occupation with interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 189 to 17,630 with similar gains for Nasdaq and the S&P 500 as well.
Social media giant Twitter dominated the headlines as revenues and earnings came in well above forecasts at US$502mln and US$0.07 respectively.
Sentiment later on Wednesday will be dominated by the latest US Fed meeting, where it is widely expected that a nod towards the long –anticipated higher cost of borrowing will be forthcoming.
In the UK, earnings season is in full swing and there will be a deluge of results and updates over the next two days.
House-builder Taylor Wimpey (LON:TW.) fell 1.9p to 180.8p after it forecast a second half sales slowdown.
Bus and rail group National Express (LON:NEX) reversed 0.1p to 301.6p as it said competitive pressure had increased, particularly in Spain where high speed rail competition hit intercity coach revenues.
Baker Greggs (LON:GRG) heated up 35p to 1219p on news of a 6.4% rise in first-half sales to £398mln and an increase in profit to £25.6mln from £16.9mln a year ago.