London's leading shares staged a strongly positive start, albeit amid paltry volumes as holiday conditions continue to grip the market.

The FTSE 100 raced ahead, extending the year-end rally that started mid-month, taking the leading index from just above the 5500 level to the cusp of 6000.

At 1003 GMT the City's main index was up 83 points at 5,950. Volume was a meagre 30m shares.

"There's no trade out there," said the head of equities trading at one City brokerage.

"People are relaxed about the market, there's a lack of sellers out there, and a few people hunting out bargains head of New Year tips" in the newspapers, he added.

But New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong also established a mildly positive tone overnight, while continental equity markets also seemed well supported, he said.

Trade this week is restricted to a full day today and tomorrow's half session ahead of the New Year holiday and, more crucially, the introduction of the euro. There is no domestic economic data out this week and corporate news is thin on the ground.

GEC was a feature amid reports that it has narrowed down its choice of merger partners to four, including British Aerospace. GEC shares added 9 pence to 550p and British Aerospace shares were up 10p to 527p.

Engineers and conglomerates saw interest, Tomkins up 11p at 293p, Siebe up 8p at 242p and its merger partner BTR up 4p at 127p.