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Cairn Energy's investors were handed an early Christmas present today - the hope of a glut of black gold next year.
Shares in the oil explorer raced to the top of the Footsie winners' board, surging 154p to 3200p, after it said that it will start drilling in Greenland a year early.
Cairn, which is run by former Scottish rugby international Bill Gammell, has secured a drill ship, the Stena Forth, ahead of plan.
It will now start drilling from next summer. Stena Forth's present user, the Hess Corporation, has agreed to release the rig for around six months.
Cairn has described Greenland as one of the world's top 10 exploration hotspots with the potential to find billions of barrels of oil. Analysts at Bernstein Research said that today's news could transform Cairn and reflects bosses' confidence in the region.
Shares in London rose thanks to a strong showing from commodity stocks, with the FTSE 100 rising 69.39 points to 5266.20.
"Green" stocks suffered after the climate conference in Copenhagen reached only a very weak agreement on carbon emissions.
Ecofin, a FTSE 250 investment firm which specialises in, among other things, alternative energy and environmental sectors, was the second biggest faller among mid caps, 4p lower at 144½p.
And KBC Peel Hunt advised clients to dump Climate Exchange, the AIM-listed exchange for trading emissions and environmental products.
But KBC's boffins noted that Copenhagen "probably achieved all that could have been reasonably expected". Climate Exchange's shares were unchanged at 750p.
Could a suitor or two come knocking for Xchanging, the back office outsourcing firm? Seymour Pierce believes so, predicting a wave of consolidation in the sector in the next few years, with Xchanging looking especially tasty because of its specialism in the finance and insurance sphere.
The broker is advising clients to snap up its shares and says Xchanging's recent acquisition of rival Cambridge puts it in a strong position in the growing Indian and US market. It adds that recent cost-cutting will reap rewards of around £17million from 2011.
Analysts also predict it will benefit from the entire industry growing by 10% annually for the next four years as businesses increasingly focus on their core operations. They set a 250p price target for the shares, which gained ½p to 209½p.
Banks bounced back from Friday's falls as investors' fears over new capital requirements receded and German peer Deutsche Bank gave them a vote of confidence.
Lloyds Banking Group climbed ¾p to 49½p, with more than 67 million shares having changed hands by lunchtime.
Rival Barclays rose 5¾p to 270p and Royal Bank of Scotland was ¼p higher at 31p. Deutsche is a buyer of all three.
The City big-hitter argues that, although the Basel Committee's proposals on bank regulation will create a "more restrictive" environment for lenders, the banks should have sufficient time to adjust to the new regulations.
Deutsche believes that RBS, Barclays and Lloyds still look cheap, given an expected improvement in loan losses in the second half but that investors will continue to shun the shares until results season kicks off in February.
The bank's analysts warn, however, that UK banks remain vulnerable to a slump in confidence which would push up funding costs.
Aggreko had a miserable debut on the top flight, losing early gains to take the dunce's cap by lunchtime. It came despite Citigroup's raising its target price on the temporary power provider from 835p to 900p. Aggreko's today retreated 13½p to 886½p.
Royal Dutch Shell rose 39p to 1758p on news that the oil titan is considering selling oil fields in Nigeria worth £3 billion.
Oil stocks were generally marked higher as the price of crude climbed. Among other energy stocks, Heritage Oil rose 10½p to 435½p.
Tullow Oil is said to be planning to block the sale of Heritage's Ugandan assets to Italian energy giant ENI.
The head of Tullow's operations in Uganda said the oil explorer is likely to exercise a right to pre-empt the deal, although Tullow has until 17January to decide what to do. Tullow shot up 26p to 1278p.
Software firm Sage dipped ½p to 224p after Bank of America Merrill Lynch moved the stock from its most preferred to its least preferred list.
Analysts warn that Sage's story for next year - no growth until the second half and no margin improvement - does not look "overly exciting".
They are more fond of Logica, 1p stronger at 115½p.
