SEEKERS after stock market excitement needed to look more closely than usual yesterday.

But a fall in the FT-SE 100 index of only 1.3 points to 4356.1 belied some keen position taking and exceptionally heavy turnover.

Overseas moves and broad economic pointers were essentially put on hold yesterday. News of the death of Deng Xiaoping, China's paramount leader led to slight selling on Wall Street, but gains in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

FT-SE 100 index options expire tomorrow and the most popular series is priced at 4350. There were suggestions that dealers with big positions would be happy to see Footsie at that level when expiry takes place today.

Meanwhile, turnover jumped to 1,129.8 million shares, although the figure was slightly illusory. Two stocks, Cenfrica and General Cable, accounted for more than 20 per cent of that volume.

Nevertheless, trade was well up on the 930 million shares dealt on Wednesday, when customer business rose to £2.9 billion.

There was some lift provided by the latest survey from the Confederation of British Industry. The CBI's industrial trends survey showed little change from the December report and revised down gross domestic product growth forecasts.

However, the news was less encouraging for exporters, which have seen a big loss of competitiveness because of the rise in sterling against the D Mark.

The latest figures compiled by BZW show that 53 per cent of the turnover generated by Footsie companies and 38 per cent of sales of FT-SE 250 companies comes from overseas.

Those companies with exposure to Germany, such as RMC and Redland, failed to get any comfort, yesterday from German economic news which took some of the heat out of sterling.

However, there was support from news that Rank, the leisure group, planned to buy back 10 per cent of its shares, which would mean up to £370 million coming' back into the market.