The collapse of a big pharmaceuticals merger ironically lit a fire under the share prices of UK drugs companies, lifting the Footsie in the process.
The FTSE 100 rose 70 points, or 1.2%, to 6,162 with index heavyweights Shire Plc (LON:SHP), AstraZeneca PLC (LON:AZN) and GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) doing much of the heavy lifting.
The drugs giants were up 5.2%, 4.55 and 3.0% respectively, as speculators wondered whether US drugs giant, thwarted in its attempt to squeeze tax benefits out of a proposed takeover of Allergan, would look elsewhere to bulk up.
Without the uplift of merger speculation, London's junior market struggled to keep up with the main market. The FTSE Aim 100 closed 15 points, or 0.5%, higher at 3,372, while the FTSE Aim All-Share added just three points (0.5%) at 715.
Throughout the day Botswana Diamonds PLC (LON:BOD) and Cyan Holdings PLC (LON:CYAN) competed to be the biggest riser on the day.
Botswana won out with a 92% increase on the back of the start of its 2016 drilling programme.
Wireless meter solutions provider Cyan revved up 81% as it won its biggest ever order, worth £10mln, from India.
“We think that the rapid follow up to the pilot order announced in February shows that Cyan’s product is easy to deploy and is delivering its expected benefits. We think the company is beginning to gain real market traction, de-risking our investment case,” said Cantor Fitzgerald, which has a price target of a penny, still four times higher than the current share price, despite today's surge.
Hyperactive natural resources firm Metal Tiger plc (LON:MTR) was at it again, shaking things up by revealing plans to take a stake in Australia-focused Greatland Gold PLC (LON:GGP) at 0.1p a share.
The company plans to pump £150,000 into the company, and with the shares rising more than a third to 0.19p, it is sitting on a 90% paper profit already.
Into each life a little rain must fall and today it fell on shareholders of Taihua plc (LON:TAIH), the China-based company focused on traditional Chinese medicinal remedies.
Total sales in 2015 fell to 35mln renminbi from RMB 53.1mln the year before, the company revealed, as the harvest was hit by bad weather.
eServGlobal (LON:ESG, ASX:ESV), the provider of end-to-end mobile financial services to emerging markets, burst its own share price bubble, noting the recent share price rise and confirming that, although it is in the final stages of negotiation of a large contract, even if it wins the contract it will not result in the company upping earnings guidance.
The shares fell 6.3% to 5.625p.
Mid-session
UK shares had more of a spring in the step at lunch.
FTSE100 is up 47 points at 6,139, while in the smaller indices - FTSE AIM 100 added 0.19% to 3,363 and the FTSE AIM All -share gained 0.29% to stand at 714.220.
Smart meter firm Cyan Holdings PLC (LON:CYAN) was clinging onto top gainer successfully, adding over 107% to 0.28p after it won an order for £10mln to install smart meters of electricity in Iran.
The deal is with contractor Micromodje to implement around 360,000 smart meters using Cyan's CyLec's advanced electricity metering infrastructure.
Aminex PLC (LON:AEX) today said it had produced first gas from its Kiliwani North gas field in Tanzania.
Aminex has a 55.75% working interest in the field in Tanzania though this will reduce to 51.75% following a recent stake sale to partner Solo Oil (LON:SOLO).
The first well, Kiliwani North-1 well (KN-1), will deliver gas to the new adjacent Songo Songo processing plant.
Aminex shares rose while Solo's also gained over 20% to stand proud at 0.35p.
Landore Resources (LON:LND), the Ontario focused minming explorer, was also continuing the good run, with shares up over 27% to 2.43p.
88Energy (LON:88E) lost 10.6% to 3.38p despite it reporting a new independent resource estimate which sees some 1.4bn barrels of oil equivalent in the HRZ shale that was encountered in the first Project Icewine well.
Vast Resources (LON:VAST) was down over 16% as it issued over 100mln shares for £133,333 after the share and warrant deal with existing shareholders announced on March 7. They were issued at 0.24p
Security firm Westminster Group (LON:WSG) sank 9.68% to 10.5p as its ferry project in Sierra Leone was blighted with further issues.