London shares ended on a high on the first day of trading after Christmas. Dealers chasing last-minute bargains helped to lift the FTSE 100 index which closed the day up 74.3 points at 5941.5.

London stocks are likely to hold onto the gains until 1999 with just a half-day of trading tomorrow, before dealers stay away for the New Year break.

With the countdown to the euro gathering pace, trading was very thin and minor share movements were exaggerated by the low volume of business.

The major movers in London today were The Television Corporation, which rose 15p to 235p on the news that it had won a major contract to produce Test match cricket next year for Channel 4.

Meanwhile Galaxy Media admitted it was considering bidding for World Cup Cricket TV rights which lifted its share price up 15p to 76½p.

The pharmaceuticals sector continued its recent rallies with Zeneca up 29p to £26.32p on the back of "further merger mutterings" although there has been no decisive news on the deal since its pre-Christmas announcement.

Shares in emerging pharmaceutical company Medeva also received a bonus climbing 6% today, up 6p to 104½p.

Other companies in the sector were caught up in the buoyant mood. Glaxo Wellcome ended up 47p at £20.73p and SmithKline Beecham improved 23½p at 842p.

But analysts warned against too much excitment. "People didn't buy the stocks at the end of the last quarter because they thought they were over-valued and have been caught out by the market recovery.

Engineering group GEC finished up 8.5p on 549.5, after at one point posting a 23.5p improvement. The group is in talks with a number of potential merger partners and an announcement is now expected early next year.

The banking sector also posted gainsl as traders looked for last minute bargains. AlliedZurich rallied 26p to 909p and Barclays moved up 34p to £13.33p.