THE London market continued its recovery today after stocks in Japan clawed back some of the losses seen after this month’s massive earthquake.

With the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing 1.5% higher overnight, the FTSE 100 Index added 25.7 points to 5811.7 as the top flight continued the turnaround in fortunes seen since Thursday.

Earlier, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo jumped 4% to 9,608 amid signs that authorities had stabilised the Fukushima nuclear complex.

Financial stocks were among those on the front foot in London, with Barclays ahead 4.4p to 293.9p, Royal Bank of Scotland 0.5p stronger to 41.9p and insurer Prudential 8.5p higher at 731.5p.

In the FTSE 250 Index, Punch Taverns rose 5% after it announced plans to demerge its Spirit managed pubs business from its tenanted estate.

The move, which chief executive Ian Dyson said would allow the acceleration of growth in the Spirit division, caused shares to rise 3.9p to 77.45p.

Meanwhile, Forth Ports added 25.5p to 1639.5p after it recommended a takeover offer from infrastructure fund Arcus valuing the owner of Tilbury docks in London and Scotland’s largest container port at Grangemouth at £760 million.