As oil seekers begin to sniff around Libya, Gulf Keystone Petroleum today showed that there's still plenty of action to be had in Britain's previous warzone, Iraq.
The patient punters who've piled into the Iraqi explorer were rewarded as shares surged 8% after an independent report upgraded an estimate for Keystone's Shaikan discovery in Kurdistan for the second time this year.
The present reckoning is that the site holds up to 13.4 billion barrels of oil, up from the previous prediction of 10.8billion barrels. More, it was hinted, could follow. Traders piled in, with decent volume. The shares rose 10.8p to 142.6p.
Elsewhere, two days of Footsie declines - prompted by the belief that European arm-waving meant the end of the world as we know it - came to an end. The City might not be making any money, but a cocktail of results from Marks and Spencer, Associated British Foods, and the Prudential proved that despite eurozone crises, Bob and Sally are still buying their aubergines, tea and insurance, even if they're not spending as much.
M&S admitted it was having to spend more on luring shoppers onto its lino, hitting its full-year profit target, but gloomy analysts had feared far worse; the shares gained 10.4p to 336.1p. Along the High Street, cash flowed into SuperGroup, up 55p to 707p ahead of an update tomorrow, and even flailing Homebase and Argos-owner Home Retail Group put on 2.9p to 92.4p.
Relief that third-quarter numbers from Lloyds Banking Group didn't contain any nasty surprises helped it gain 2.3p at 30p. Rivals took a ride on its coat tail. Royal Bank of Scotland was up a halfpenny at 22.8p, and HSBC was 6p pricier at 541p. Among traders, chair swinging and "how many pennies in the jar" bonus-guessing competitions were cast aside in favour of ringing phones and deal-making. "There's actually something to do, which is a nice change," said one. "There's a bit more confidence out there, we're making a push for 5600."
The miners did their best - Vedanta was 34p stronger at 1285p, Xstrata put on 23.5p at 1026p - but the benchmark index didn't quite hit the trader's target. The Footsie was 60.75 points stronger at 5571.57.
Another riser was Segro, owner of most of the industrial sheds surrounding Heathrow. Property analysts are going on a tour of a Slough trading estate this afternoon to check out Segro's warehouses. They're clearly enthused about it: shares in the industrial real estate group accelerted 7.3p to 236.7, helped by interim results showing stronger annual rental incomes.
Industrial sheds are exciting the City: it says a lot.
