The FTSE 100 of Britain's leading shares soared 2.2 percent on Thursday to its biggest one-day gain since the global stock market sell-off last month, with continued M&A activity part-reversing large losses in the previous session.
Heading the recovery was the world's fourth-largest cigarette group Imperial Tobacco, which topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard adding 8.6 percent after making an 11.5 billion-euro ($15 billion) approach for Franco-Spanish tobacco firm Altadis.
The FTSE 100 ended up 132.5 points, or 2.2 percent, to 6,133.2, tracking rallying US and Asian shares, which rebounded as hard-hit financial stocks recovered on the view that concerns about US mortgage defaults were overblown and had left equities looking cheap.
"Yesterday we were drowning in a sea of red, today we've been sailing on turquoise blue waters," said Henk Potts, an equity strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers. "We've been saying for sometime that the turmoil we've been seeing in the market is very much a correction rather than a crash.
"We don't think we've seen the peak of the bull market (and) there is very little chance of the US economy going into recession." Mining was the standout sector with Antofagasta up 6.1 percent, BHP Billiton climbing 6 percent and Anglo American tacking on 5.7 percent.
Traders cited overselling in the previous session, optimism on Chinese demand, soaring metal prices and a positive ABN note and upgrades for the sector's performance. "ABN upgraded several mining stocks this morning," one trader said. "Copper and gold are up... it's just one thing after the other but the whole sector has been heavily smacked."
Among other leading gainers, banks and financials reversed heavy losses in the previous session, with HBOS up 1.3 percent, Barclays climbing 2 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland adding 1.6 percent. The world's largest listed hedge fund company Man Group tacked on 6.9 percent after a share buyback, traders said. Man Group said on Thursday that it had purchased for cancellation 2,000,000 of its ordinary shares on Wednesday.
"It just got overly hit yesterday, a rebound," one trader said. "Obviously the share buyback helps... I think it's a bit of both." Merger and acquisition activity again helped various stocks push into the blue, with Kingfisher up 5.7 percent on continued talk of private equity interest, traders said.
Meanwhile, shares in Sainsbury ended up 2.4 percent reversing earlier gains on market talk of a 600 pence per share private equity bid for the supermarket chain. Sainsbury declined comment.
"M&A activity is clearly providing a tremendous boost to share prices and we'd expect that to continue through the first half of the year," said Barclays' Potts.
"Another example of that coming through is Imperial Tobacco. Obviously that is a sector that looks like its been in need of consolidation for sometime... they need to diversify away from the UK market with the smoking ban coming in."
Cadbury Schweppes closed up 3 percent after it announced plans to split its global confectionery division and its American soft drinks into two separate businesses to help unlock value for shareholders. "Bowing to shareholder's demands to unlock some value... the growth potential isn't fantastic so they might as well use that money, return some to shareholders and use some of it for acquisitions," Barclays' Potts added.
"The chocolate and chewing gum business has got far better growth profile than the carbonated drinks business in the US so it makes an awful lot of sense." In other individual stocks, consumer goods company Unilver featured among the leaders, adding 5.9 percent after an upgrade from Credit Suisse.
Life insurer Prudential tacked on 5 percent after it said it will slim down its UK division to concentrate on a profitable core of products and cut more costs at home, placing a question mark over 3,000 jobs in Britain and abroad.
In energy news, US crude oil held firm at around $58 a barrel after Opec agreed to keep its existing oil output curbs which have helped to bring world oil supply and demand more into balance. Heavyweight oil stocks BP added 1.8 percent and rival Royal Dutch Shell was up 0.9 percent.