A festive rally for the London market left the FTSE 100 Index within touching distance of its highest point of the year.
In its third positive session in a row, the Footsie climbed 53.8 points to 5382.4 by lunchtime on Wednesday - 15 points short of its previous high in November.
Traders warned that volumes were thin in the run-up to Christmas and cautioned against reading too much into the week's gains.
There was little movement in shares after it emerged the Bank of England voted unanimously to keep interest rates at their record low and maintain the money supply programme at its current value.
"The Bank is clearly keeping all its options open in order to protect the recovery process," said IG Index trader Philip Gillett.
The pound was little moved against the dollar and euro following the news. The best US home sales in three years were the trigger for earlier gains across world markets, with the Nikkei almost 2% higher in Tokyo and other European markets also stronger. The figures offset previous gloom about US economic output for the third quarter being revised lower.
Oil stocks, which have been responsible for much of this week's rally, posted further gains as BP lifted 7.6p to 605.1p and Royal Dutch Shell rose 21p to 1828.5p. This was after oil cartel OPEC elected to keep production unchanged in 2010.
The strong run seen by Cairn Energy after it announced news of drilling progress off the coast of Greenland finally came to an end as shares fell 4.7p to 334.3p. Mining firm Eurasian Natural Resources topped the Footsie risers board with a gain of 26.5p to 894.5p, while Standard Chartered was the leading bank with a rise of 39p to 1586p. Barclays added 5.45p to 277.9p and HSBC lifted 17p to 720.1p.
Outside the top flight, shares in Ideal Shopping Direct fell 4.5p to 121.5p after the home shopping firm announced a £5 million deal to buy the gardening products business set up by its founders two years ago. The shares element of the deal could result in Paul Wright, Valerie Kaye and related parties holding a stake of more than 40%, although Ideal said this would not result in a takeover offer.
Elsewhere, shares in entertainment retailer HMV fell 1.45p to 96.4p after it boosted its position in the live music market with the £46 million takeover of MAMA Group.
