The FTSE 100 share index did well on Tuesday, rising 150.5 points to 5,852.6 (up 2.6 per cent).

The major banks did well with Alliance & Leicester, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays all rising 6-8 per cent each.

Insurer Friends Provident also rose 7.4 per cent.

Drug companies AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline rose 6.9 and 4.6 per cent respectively.

Retailers Next, Home Retail Group and Kingfisher all did well with gains of 6.8-7.8 per cent each.

Gambling groups also did well with PartyGaming up 8.4 per cent and Rank up 9.9 per cent.

Commodities were the losers of the day with miners Antofagasta and Xstrata down 1.5 per cent and Lonmin down 2.4 per cent.

Oil company BP was unchanged while gas company BG Group fell 2.0 per cent.

Ftse Glaxosmithkline