London's equity market continued to struggle yesterday, with the leading stocks never really able to make much headway against a background of persistent worries about the impact of the Russian political and financial crises.

But the second-liners and smallcaps managed to cling on to relatively modest gains, with some dealers reporting a switch out of the front-line issues into the smaller stocks, which some felt offered better value.

There were also hints yesterday of more switching from equities to bonds, the so-called "flight to safety", which has been a feature of global markets since the Russian crisis first blew up.

Any further evidence that the emerging market malaise has severely infected Latin America is expected to cause further problems for Wall Street.

There were no such fears on Wall Street on Tuesday, however, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted its biggest ever points gain in a single session, regaining the 8,000 level in doing so. But Wall Street ran into plenty of selling squalls yesterday, posting a three-figure decline not long after London closed.

At the close, the index was 32.9 lower at 5,311.3, having swung in a 120.7-point arc.

The FTSE 250 index settled 7.2 ahead at 4,811.7, well off its best level of the day of 4,822.6, but a good performance nevertheless. The FTSE SmallCap finished 10.6 higher at 2,112.8, having hit a session high of 2,112.8.

The expected bid by BSkyB for Manchester United, regarded by many people as Britain's premier football club, duly appeared, but the stock price did not match the bid level as market operators feared a reference to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission.

Turnover in equities was 885 million shares.