The Footsie burst through the 7,000 barrier, a mere 17 years or so after it passed 6,000.
Investors were buoyed by the interest rate outlook, which continues to be benign, on both sides of the Atlantic, plus hopes that Greece is moving closer to succumbing to demands for reforms needed to keep the European Union's bail-out tap running.
“A measured Fed announcement, rising global optimism, and a well-received 2015 Budget from the Chancellor, have helped drive the FTSE-100 above 7,000 for the first time. Some may question the market’s sustainability at this level, but we see plenty of room for investors to make further gains," opined Nick Dixon, investment director of insurance and asset management firm Aegon UK.
“Yields on FTSE-100 stocks and UK government gilts have reversed their historic relationship since 1999-2000.
Quantitative easing has been among the factors depressing gilt yields from 5.48% in Dec 1999 to around 1.52% now while the dividend yield from FTSE-100 stocks has risen from 2.35% in Dec 1999 to above 3.5% today," he added.
Metal prices headed higher, as the dollar weakened, luring investors back into mining stocks, and with the FTSE 100 so heavily weighted towards the sector, that helped the top-share index push on to 7,023, up 60 points on the day and 282 points on the week.
Commodity plays Anglo American, Glencore, Fresnillo and BHP Billiton occupied four of the top five places on the Footsie leader board, with building material firm CRH (LON:CRH) muscling in on the act, as it finally received the news that rivals Holcim and Lafarge had salvaged their merger.
The merger is set to create the world’s largest cement firm, but had looked in doubt this week after Holcim wanted the terms renegotiated.
CRH had already agreed to buy €6.5bn worth of assets from the merged company, assets that would make it the world's third biggest building materials supplier behind German company Shaefer Holding International and Japanese-based Daifuku.
Shares in CRH rose nearly 5.1% to 1,840p.
Homebuilder Persimmon (LON:PSN) was the biggest loser on FTSE 100 after statistics for January showed a sharp dip in UK construction activity. Its share price fell 5% to 1,689p.
Oil stocks also lent their support to the index, as the price of oil nudged higher, while banking giant Lloyds (LON:LLOY), up 1.4%, cheered the Sabadell takeover of TSB (LON:TSB), as it means it can offload its huge stake in the lender.
The 340p per share (£107bn total) is 30% higher than TSB’s float price last June and Lloyds looks set to cash in as it still owns 50% of the company. TSB shares hardened 6p to 333p.
The big mover of the day was Karelian Diamonds (LON:KDR) as shares in the AIM-listed company shot up more than 60% to 1.53p after the miner announced the discovery of a potential new diamond source in Finland.
W Resources (LON:WRES) was wanted after it raised £375,000 that will enable it to pay off US$250,000 of its US$800,000 convertible loan facility from financier Bergen.
The company will pay off the remainder of its Bergen facility shortly, thus removing a potential stock overhang, and prompting a 15.9% rise to 0.256p.
Elsewhere, Independent Oil & Gas (LON:IOG) rose 19% to 6.26p, on a licence award that will another gas discovery to its portfolio.
The biggest faller of the day so far was online advertiser and sales provider Digital Globe Services (LON:DGS) as the company announced a first half net loss. Its shares crashed 62% to 49.5p.