The FTSE 100 index finished 87.9 points up on Tuesday at 6,087.4. The rise is almost a two per cent increase on the previous session and took the index above 6,000.

Banks and financial service providers helped boost the FTSE as Standard Chartered posted a 27 per cent jump in profits and predicted another strong year in 2008. Alliance & Leicester, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Bradford & Bingley, Lloyds TSB and HBOS all increased between 2.2 and 8.1 per cent.

Insurers like Old Mutual, Aviva, Royal & Sun Alliance saw their values go up 4.1-6.1 per cent.

Cable & Wireless saw its stock value go up 4.4 per cent following media reports of investor pressure to proceed with a demerger later in the year.

Energy firms were the losers of the day with Centrica, Scottish & Southern Energy, National Grid, United Utilities and International Power all falling.

Oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell saw increases of under one percent each. The mining sector was mixed with Lonmin and Antofagasta up 2.2 and 2.6 per cent respectively, whilst Rio Tinto, Xstrata and Vedanta Resources all dropped in value.

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