China's latest economic figures gave traders cause for optimism as the FTSE 100 Index maintained its strong start to the year.
Output rose to 7.9% in the final three months of the year, from 7.4% in the previous quarter, although the result for the year of 7.8% was still the country's weakest annual performance since the 1990s.
The renewed optimism over the state of the world's second largest economy meant the FTSE 100 Index, which closed at a fresh four-and-a-half year high last night, rose by another 33.4 points to 6165.9.
Miners were the driving force behind the improvement, with copper specialists Evraz and Kazakhmys up 12.3p to 303.7p and 22.25p to 798.25p respectively.
Rio Tinto was 65.25p higher to 3504.75p as shares recovered from Thursday's shock departure of chief executive Tom Albanese in the wake of nearly £9 billion of write-downs, driven by its disastrous acquisition of Alcan in 2007.
The latest surge for the FTSE 100 Index came despite more gloom from the retail sector after the Office for National Statistics said seasonally-adjusted sales volumes declined by 0.1% on the previous month.
This was worse than City forecasts for a rise of 0.2% and fuelled expectations that the UK economy will show another decline when fourth quarter GDP figures are released next Friday.
High street bellwether Marks & Spencer, which has already reported poor Christmas clothing sales figures, was 5p higher at 367.85p but B&Q owner Kingfisher dropped 4.55p to 280.55p and Sainsbury's slipped 3.5p to 324.5p.
The supermarket's poor performance came as Goldman Sachs said it expected the company's results to show further deterioration as competition intensifies.
In the FTSE 250 Index, Home Retail Group and Dixons Retail Group were lower after their impressive updates of the previous session. They were 2p cheaper at 134.65p and 0.3p at 27p respectively.
The Press Association, photo by jam_90s