US Fed boss Janet Yellen’s rose to the rescue of global markets last night, enabling the FTSE 100 to finish marginally up on the week.
Yellen signalled US base rates would likely increase this year, but that further rises would be gradual.
Footsie jumped 148 points to 6,109, having started the week at 6,104.
Emissions control technology firm Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT) was wanted, rising 122p to 2,519p, recovering somewhat from the shoeing it had taken this week in the wake of the VW emissions scandal.
The company is a major supplier of the catalytic converters used to control emissions from diesel engines.
At the other end of the Footsie, Glencore’s (LON:GLEN) roller-coaster ride continued. Having led the risers early on shares, the one-time mining titan slumped again below 100p and traded 1.9% down at 96.79p.
Lloyds rose 2.4% to 75.63p as the UK government sold more shares to reduce its stake to 12%.
Power station operator Drax (LON:DRX) edged up 1.0% to 242.5p after it pulled out of a £1bn project to to cut emissions.
It had a massive grumble at the government's U-turn on renewable energy, a theme that was echoed by Renewable Energy Generation (LON:WIND), which tumbled 5.71p to 39.29p as it said recent changes to UK government policy will cost it £7mln and have made it tough to fund new wind and solar projects.
Red Rock Resources (LON:RRR) was the day's biggest riser, up 57%, but despite the propensity of the company to push out stock market statements late on a Friday, there has been no comment thus far from the company to explain the share price movement.
Synergy Healthcare (LON:SYR) was the next biggest gainer as a court ruled against the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) request for an injunction to block Steris’s acquisition of the company. Shares leapt 43% to 2,260p.
Gaming machine hardware maker Quixant (LON:QXT) has agreed a £7.7mln deal to buy electronic screen maker Densitron Technologies (LON:DSN).
Densitron said the deal is worth 11p per share, representing an almost 30% premium to yesterday’s close.
Densitron's shares steamed up to 10.625p, up 2.125p.
African Potash (LON:AFPO) jumped 7.9% to 3.08p as it revealed it will be paid US$500 a tonne on the 50,000 tonne delivery to a Zambian distributor.
CCTV group SerVision (LON;SEV) dropped sharply to 3.375p after a placing raised £800,000 at a 24% discount to last night’s close.