Good corporate news including strong sets of numbers from Lloyds and RSA sent FTSE100 soaring higher.
At the close, the London blue chip index was back above 6,000 at 6,012 - up 145 points.
Lloyds reported a 5% rise in underlying profit to £8.1bn, or 10% excluding TSB, on a 1% rise in total income to £17.6bn, although pre-tax profit fell 7% to £1.6bn.
The bank set aside another £4bn for insurance mis-selling claims, taking the total to £16bn, but recommended a total annual dividend payout of 2.25p and a special dividend of 0.5p per share.
Impairment charges fell 48% to £568mln.
A fall in bad debts and an increase in the dividend meant Lloyds left Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) and HSBC (LON:HSBA) in the shade.
Shares in Lloyds added 13.57% to 70.64p.
More encouraging news from Europe, when bank lending to businesses improved and money supply growth improved added to the upbeat mood.
The UK's Office for National Statistics, meanwhile, confirmed GDP growth improved slightly to 0.5% quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2015 from 0.4% in the third quarter.
Year-on-year growth dipped to 1.9% - the weakest since the first quarter of 2013.
Analysts also said it showed the UK was still too reliant on the service sector and consumer spending, rather than manufacturing.
Back in the market, BT (LON:BT.A) got a reprieve, albeit possibly temporary, from having to hive off its network arm Openreach, although watchdog Ofcom said the division must become more independent. Shares rose 4.66% to 479.8p.
Insurer RSA (LON:RSA) jumped almostb 10% to 433.2p as 2015 operating profit rose 43% to £523mln, an increase of 57% at constant exchange rates.
British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) reversed earlier losses to stand 1.13% ahead at 3,877.5p as annual profits and revenue rose but group cigarette volume fell by 0.5% to 663 billion, despite higher market share.
Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) dropped after Moody's downgraded the miner to Baa1 from A3, saying the rating needed to reflect the worse-than-expected downturn in the mining sector and commodity prices.
Premier Oil (LON:PMO) also slipped after annual pre-tax losses more than doubled in the face of falling oil prices.
Hummingbird Resources (LON:HUM) backtracked 10% to 18p after the Mali gold miner extended its US$15m bridge facility with Taurus Mining for another six months to September.
Shares in Tlou Energy (LON:TLOU) rose on news that the Africa-focused coal-bed methane group had begun production testing from a pilot well at the Lesedi project, Botswana.
Shares in e-commerce services provider Earthport (LON:EPO) plummeted as it flagged a potential financial loss of £5mln due to suspected fraud.
Online secure payments group SafeCharge (LON:SCH) has landed a new contract with Paddy Power Betfair(LON:PPB), boosting its shares by 2.48% to 248p.