Fears over the Crimea issue appeared not to dent investor appetite Tuesday as FTSE 100 held on to gains to close almost 37 points higher.
In the latest key step, Russian president Putin has supported Crimea's request to join Russia and a bill has been signed between him and Crimean leaders.
It followed a controversial referendum Sunday in Crimea, which Europe and the US declared as illegitimate. Putin appeared to ease worries by saying Russia did not intend a further break-up of Ukraine.
The West has imposed sanctions on Russian and Ukrainian officials.
Footsie closed the day, up 37 points, or half a percent, at 6,605.
Jasper Lawson, market analyst at CMC Markets, said it had been a trading day of two halves.
The mood changed after Putin, in his widely-watched speech announced that Russia “respects the rest of the territorial integrity of Ukraine”, he suggested.
"On the face of it this is good news for international trade out of Ukraine including the export of energy and agricultural commodities."
But he added: "The thousands of Russian troops on the Eastern Ukrainian border do leave room for scepticism over the Russian President’s comments."
As traders gear up for Osborne's Budget tomorrow, it was a fairly light day on eceonomic data, BAE Systems was the biggest gainer on the UK benchmark after an upgrade from RBC Capital, while miners bore the brunt of selling with Fresnillo (LON:FRES) and Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) and Antofagasta dropping.
Elsewhere, online clothes merchant ASOS (LON:ASOS) slumped after warning margins will be squeezed by bigger-than-expected capital investments into warehousing capacity.
It expects to invest £68mln, rather than £55mln, in expanding its sales capacity (to £2.5bn versus £1bn currently). Consequently, margins are expected to reduce to around 6.5%. Shares tumbled over 8%.
Elsewhere, the junior space wasn't faring so well - FTSE AIM All share was down over three points, while FTSE AIM 100 lost over 22 as traders took risk off the table.
Among the notable risers however was Stellar Diamonds (LON:STEL), which shot up over 9% after it said it continued to recover high grades and ‘exceptional’ quality stones from its Tongo kimberlite dyke project in Sierra Leone.
So far the group has recovered 551.6 carats from its bulk sampling programme at an average grade of 126.3 carats per hundred tonnes, which is higher than the estimated grade 120 carats per hundred tonnes.
Not just that, a number of ‘outstanding’ gem quality diamonds have been uncovered with stones up to 6.7 carats in size.
Stellar said it anticipates the grade will increase as further diamonds are recovered from re-processing.
Also on the up was Advanced Computer Software (LON:ASW), which revealed yet another strong annual performance with both revenues and underlying profits up.
The healthcare and business software specialist expects revenues to climb by 67% to at least £202mln with underlying profit [EBITDA] to be no less than £45mln (£27mln) in the year to February. Consensus forecasts were for around £199mln of revenue and about £44mln of profit.
UMC Energy (LON: UEP) was also a big gainer - closing almost 29% up, while another riser was StratMin Global Resources (LON:STGR), up almost 3%, after it revealed an immediate uplift in the carbon content of graphite produced following the installation of a scrubber at its Loharano project in Madagascar.
The most recent trial production batch averaged a carbon content of 90%, with some samples as high as 92% - a significant increase on the percentages achieved before the scrubber was installed (around 78%) and will mean a higher price per tonne for StratMin.
AIM heavyweight Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LON:GKP) was back in focus on Tuesday and shares advanced as investors decided the shares were cheap again after last week’s heavy fall
That came when an independent reserves and resources update that disappointed its disciples.
A total of 12.5bn barrels of gross oil in place were confirmed in the report, which is someway shy of prior estimates in the order of 19bn barrels.
Elsewhere, Aureus Mining (LON:AUE) gained as it said it had poured the concrete for the ball mill foundations at the process plant for its New Liberty gold mine in Liberia.
The remaining mill components are due to arrive in June, with construction taking four to six months and commissioning in the fourth quarter of this year.
Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) rose over 3% as a preliminary investigation into how the potash resource at Danakil in Ethiopia might best be mined has suggested solution mining.
In Toronto, Canadian Overseas Petroleum added 5.17% to its share price on the day.