Britain's top share index was up 0.4 percent by midday on Monday, as commodity stocks strengthened on the back of bullish trade data from China, which boosted confidence over the strength of the global economic recovery.
By 1204 GMT Britain's FTSE 100 was up 21.22 points at 5,555.45, having earlier touched its highest level since September 2008 at 5,600.48.
China's exports and imports last month blew past expectations, with exports leaping 17.7 percent from a year earlier, dwarfing the 4 percent rise forecast by economists and breaking a 13-month streak of year-on-year declines.
"Markets have taken this as confirmation that global recovery is still based on solid foundations," said Anthony Grech, market strategist at IG Index.
"Many traders (are) still eyeing 5,650 as the next significant target. There is the risk of some sort of pullback, but as we have seen for 10 months now, buyers remain happy to stock up on weakness, and market sentiment remains very positive," he added.
The news from China was greeted with enthusiasm by investors, who bought commodities across the board on the prospect of increased demand over the coming year, with metals prices rising between 1.0 and 1.9 percent, and crude oil up 0.8 percent, to above $83.50 a barrel.
Miners Rio Tinto, Xstrata, Lonmin, Anglo American, Kazakhmys and BHP Billiton gained between 0.7 and 2.3 percent.
Energy stocks BG Group, BP and Royal Dutch Shell gained 1.2 to 2 percent, also helped by a bullish note on the sector from Citigroup, which raised targets and hiked its rating for BP to "buy" from "hold".
The FTSE has gained 61 percent since its six-year trough in March 2009 and 3.1 percent in the year to date, but volumes remained low as investors continued to return from the Christmas and New Year break.
TESCO HIGHER
Britain's biggest retailer Tesco added 0.9 percent ahead of its Christmas trading figures due on Tuesday. In a preview, RBS repeated its "buy" rating on Tesco saying it expects solid international sales growth.
The Co-operative Group, Britain's largest mutual retailer, reported on Monday a rise in underlying Christmas sales at its food shops.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets joined the rally, rising 0.7 percent, but J Sainsbury, which last week beat forecasts with a 4.2 percent rise in like-for-like sales, missed out, falling 0.6 percent.
Property stocks were also firmer, helped by a positive note from Goldman Sachs, which raised targets across the board.
Land Securities gained 3.2 percent after being added to the broker's "Conviction Buy" list, while Segro was up 1.9 percent after it was raised to "neutral" from "sell". Segro also found support as it reported trading in line with expectations..
On the downside, banks were the biggest losers, retreating ahead of the start of the U.S. fourth-quarter results season, which begins tonight with Alcoa but starts for the sector with JP Morgan numbers on Friday.
Barclays, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds Banking Group fell 0.9 to 2.9 percent.
Other financials also suffered, with life insurers lower. Aviva, Legal & General and Standard Life shed 1.6 to 2.3 percent.
Among individual issues, SABMiller slipped 2 percent after it dropped out of an auction to buy the beer business of Mexico's Femsa, leaving Dutch peer Heineken to snap it up.
Some other defensive stocks were also weaker, with Imperial Tobacco and power network operator National Grid down 0.4 and 0.2 percent, respectively.
