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Some of the confidence being shown by stock-market investors rubbed off on the England cricket team in the fifth and final Test at the Brit Oval today.
Googlies, full tosses and even the odd wide have been hurled at traders in recent weeks, but the boundaries have been plentiful. Luckily, our cricketers were performing in the same vein.
Investors were certainly in good form today, with the FTSE 100 index posting a rise of 55.96 points to 4745.63.
Things swung round in Asia this morning, the Shanghai market reversing yesterday's heavy losses to put on 4.5%. Hong Kong and Tokyo also posted useful gains, with Wall Street opening sharply higher this afternoon as the Dow Jones rose 20.63 at 9299.79. That was in spite of an unexpected rise of 15,000 in the weekly jobless claims.
Worries the global economic recovery may have stalled were pushed into the background as prices rebounded. Brokers such as Morgan Stanley have been telling clients there are still a few hundred points to be had before the stock market can be said to be fully valued.
Once again, a lot depended on the miners, which make up a large part of the value of the Footsie 100. A strengthening dollar and rising raw materials prices paved the way for useful gains.
Rio Tinto jumped 30½p to 2342½p following results while there were also gains in Kazakhmys, up 25p to 902½p, and Antofagasta, 36p ahead at 754½p. Vedanta Resources put on 45p at 1753p, with Goldman Sachs continuing to rate the shares a buy despite dropping its target from 2656p to 2527p.
A rising oil price added to the mix. The price of a barrel of crude is hovering around the $72 level following evidence that inventories in the US had taken a drop. Heavyweights were marked higher in response. BP put on 6.6p at 516.1p, Royal Dutch Shell 26p to 1582p, Cairn Energy 64p at 2496p and Tullow Oil 2p at 1079p.
But early attention surrounded the massive share placing in Zurich by Swiss government-owned banking giant UBS, down 46 cents at €15.44. The bank's broking arm was among a clutch of advisers putting together an accelerated bookbuilding exercise in 332 million shares, which were later placed at a top-of-the-range Swfr16.50.
Demand from existing holders and hedge funds was said to be so strong that any thought of holding back some of the shares for American investors this afternoon was scrapped. The Swiss government acquired the shares in UBS in October, when it has to rescue the country's largest bank. It invested around £3.4 billion last year through mandatory convertible notes.
Also in the banking sector, Barclays rose 6.2p to 351.3p after Credit Suisse reinstated the shares with an outperform rating and a 395p target. Lloyds Banking Group topped the £1 mark again with a rise of 2.5p to 101.2p while Royal Bank of Scotland advanced 1.6p to 47.5p.
The better-than-expected retail sales numbers for July cheered sentiment. The rise of 0.4% took the annual rate up to 3.3%, its highest since May 2008. It reinforced the view that the UK economy has started to emerge from recession, and offset news that Government borrowing had soared to record levels following a collapse in tax receipts.
Shares of High Street stores were quick to respond to the retail sales numbers. Kingfisher posted a rise of 4p to 211.1p while Home Retail firmed 3p to 300p and Marks & Spencer put on 2.4p to 335.6p.
Diageo was among the biggest casualties among blue-chips, losing 4½p at 938p after several downgrades. Evolution Securities has cut its rating from add to neutral while ING has moved from buy to hold and trimmed its target from 970p to 956p ahead of full-year results next week.
ING says sales and profits should show resilience and might even come in above expectations. But uncertainty about sales going forward could mean Diageo will offer no guidance about prospects.
Credit Suisse has dropped its rating for property developer Hammerson, 0.3p easier at 390.4p, from outperform to neutral. It has also cut the shopping centres developer Liberty International, up 9.2p at 477.9p, from neutral to underperform.
Drugs giant AstraZeneca fell 19p to 2759½p after Citigroup reduced its rating on the shares from buy to hold, but maintained its target price at 2900p.
