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Confidence returned to investment markets on Tuesday as investors and bargain hunters alike, shrugged off continuing Greek debt issues. Despite no new developments on the Euro zone’s crisis and ahead of tonight’s critical confidence vote for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, the FTSE 100 bounced back from recent losses to gain 1.5% by the close, with a rise of 82 points to 5775.3.

Bond investors also speculated that a default would be avoided and yields on Spanish, Italian and Greek government issued bonds fell throughout the day. Barclays Wealth even went as far as to advise clients to buy very short dated Greek bonds, but added the caveat that they were not for the “faint of heart”.

Commodity stocks were the main drivers of upward momentum; five of the top ten FTSE 100 performers were mining companies, whilst traditionally defensive shares such as utility companies and pharmaceuticals performed less well, suggesting investors were in a bullish mood.

Shares in supermarket chains Tesco and Morrisons were broadly unchanged despite industry data suggesting both had gained market share over US owned rival Asda, despite its recent acquisition of discount outlet Netto.

A buoyant trading update from Whitbread saw shares surge 7%, closing 102p higher at 1587p. The owner of Premier Inn and Beefeater restaurants announced a first quarter sales increase of over 9%, driven mainly by the expansion of Costa Coffee outlets whilst sales in various restaurant brands were holding up fairly well despite a difficult trading environment.

Following a statement by the chairman that he expected permission to restart oil production in the Gulf of Mexico as being ‘not far away’, shares in BP gained 3.75% closing at 445.7p.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Dance .