(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) Britain's blue chips finished at a four month high after Mario Draghi pulled a huge QE rabbit out of the hat which surprised markets - to the upside.
FTSE100 closed out 69 points higher at 6797 - a whisker from 6800 as it continues its ascent. The German Dax is up 137.
In the US the Dow Jones is 114 points higher at the time of writing.
Earlier ECB president Mario Draghi had said not to read too much into his late arrival before going onto announce a massive bond-buying programme for the eurozone quipping that the "elevator wasn't working".
Then he went onto reveal the huge scale of the QE (quantitative easing) planned to breathe life back into the Eurozone’s weakening economy.
The ECB will buy government bonds worth up to €60bn per month from March 2015 until September next year or until there's a "sustained adjustment in the path of inflation" to get it to 2%.
It had been widely speculated that the government bond buying would be in the order of €50 billion a month to boost the region's flagging economy.
But in fact Draghi said it would be €60bn a month (£46bn) starting in March for 18 months.
Draghi admitted the action the central bank took last year was “insufficient” to ward off the threat of deflation and said that these new measures will counter two unfavourable factors - weak inflation and weak growth.
The news sent the Euro currency lower against the dollar.
Meanwhile the crude price dropped under US$47 a barrel as it emerged US stockpiles were at the highest level in 80 years.
In terms of companies in London () gave support to the FTSE rise adding 3.91%.
It told investors earlier it would hit full-year earnings targets after seeing higher parcel volumes in the run-up to Christmas.
The UK postal group handled around 120mln parcels in December 4% more than the same month last year as it benefited from the collapse of rival City Link.
In the small caps smart meter group Cyan () shot up almost 34% after it received its first significant order from a public utility in India.
The order worth £1mln is from Enzen Global Solutions and is for a large pilot project to be undertaken by the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation (CESC) in southwest India.
Cyan will supply 21000 smart meters as part of an “end-to-end” solution.
() also added over 4% as it confirmed as the new majority shareholder of Interoil (IOX) a Norway headquartered operator of Colombian oil projects.
It comes after a series of proposals were accepted at an extraordinary general meeting in Oslo today.
The biggst riser in London was Scotgold which surged over 96% as it unvieled a hike in its reserves.
The report showed a 201% increase in the estimated amount of gold compared to the previous study published in November 2012.
Investment portfolio analytics provider () nudged a tad higher as it said it experienced high levels of growth for its Cloud-based Revolution product last year while the legacy Seven offering remained resilient.
Revolution’s annualised recurring revenue had increased by 68% to £5.4mln at the end of 2014 from £3.2mln a year earlier.
Shares in ImmuPharma () rose over 11% after the AIM-listed drug developer revealed it is ready to take its lead treatment into the final stage of clinical trials.
It has opted to work with a contract research organisation (CRO) called Simbec-Orion to carry out phase-III studies on Lupuzor for the auto-immune disease lupus rather than tie-up with a traditional pharma company.
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