FRESH hopes that US policymakers will reassure over the country’s vast moneyprinting programme fuelled another day of gains for the London market yesterday.

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is likely to stress today that the planned tapering of quantitative easing (QE) is some way off – and will then only be a scaling back of its economic stimulus programme.

Since late last month, markets have been struggling to come to terms with the expected pull back in QE, although ahead of the Fed’s rates meeting the FTSE 100 Index rallied for a second successive session to close up 43.7 points at 6374.2.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced in early trade. But European markets were subdued amid disappointing EU car sales, with the Dax in Germany edging up and Paris’s Cac 40 slipping back.

Sterling struggled on the currency markets after worse-than-expected UK inflation.

Heavyweight risers on the London market included banking chain HSBC, which cheered 14.5p to 696p after broker Citigroup upgraded the stock to buy from neutral, citing the bank’s stronger balance sheet and progress on cost cutting.

Other banks were also on the front foot, with Barclays up 3.65p to 300.3p, Lloyds Banking Group 0.88p ahead to 62.18p and Royal Bank of Scotland 7p higher at 323p.

Whitbread set the pace at the top of the risers board after it reported a bright start to its financial year, with like-for-like sales at Premier Inn hotels up 2.7 per cent and coffee chain Costa showing eight per cent growth.

The latter benefited from the cold weather conditions, although this had a negative impact on the performance of its restaurant brands Beefeater and Brewers Fayre. Its shares have enjoyed a strong run this year and closed up 3.6 per cent or 106p to 3031p.

Low-cost airline easyJet was among the risers, up by 27p to 1279p, after it announced a long-awated deal to buy 135 Airbus planes over the next nine years.

The no-frills carrier, which will need shareholder approval for the purchases, said the new 180-seater A320 planes will allow it to boost the number of passengers it can carry from 60 million a year to about 90 million.

Other big risers included BT Group, up 7.3p to 319.3p, and BAE Systems after a gain of 8.4p to 395.7p.

Outside the top flight, Crest Nicholson improved 1.5p to 339.5p as it continued the improvement seen since its flotation four months ago. The latest gain came as it reported a 76 per cent surge in half-year profits.