The banking sector on Wednesday helped the FTSE 100 post a gain of 28.7 points to close at 5,245.9, while the FTSE 250 gained 4.5 points to 7,541.7 on a volume of 2.9 billion shares traded.

The gains in the banking sector came as Goldman Sachs touted the stocks to its clients for reasons ranging from good volume growth to high dividend yields. HBOS gained 1.9 percent to 891 p, while Northern Rock was up 1.3 percent to 823 ½p.

Goldman Sachs had rated both banks at “outperform”. In addition, Royal Bank of Scotland gained 1.2 percent to £17.38, HSBC was up 1.5 percent to 911 ½p, and Barclays added 1.3 percent to 571p.

Another “outperform” rating from Goldman Sachs sent mobile phone company Vodafone up 0.4 percent to 143p. Utilities struggled, with Scottish Power down 1.5 percent to 449 ¾p and United Utilities losing 1.2 percent to £10.70.