It was a close call for London's stock market yesterday with sentiment in the heavyweights ebbing, rallying and slipping away again before the FTSE 100 finished fractionally on the downside, with sentiment hindered by concerns about valuations and Wall Street.

Of the other indices, only the FTSE 250 finished higher, boosted by a handful of bullish company results. The FTSE SmallCap was under relatively heavy fire for much of the day and posted a substantial decline, while the Techmark 100 ended slightly lower.

After a near 100-point swing in sentiment, the FTSE 100 was left with a 0.8 decline at 5,796.1, having traded down to 5,733.8 and up to 5,829.8 during a frantic and rather messy trading session.

The FTSE 250, meanwhile, rallied strongly from earlier weakness and closed 4.4 firmer at 6,571.1. But there was no rally for the smallcaps with the FTSE SmallCap index finally 19.3 off at 3,107.1, having fallen to a session low of 3,106.4.

But there was credit for the Techmark 100 index, which, having struggled for much of the morning and early afternoon, rallied well to end the day only 6.93 easier at 2,016.21. At its worst, the Techmark 100 fell to 1,994.75.

It was a tough start to the day for the London market, with Wall Street's overnight slide. Dealers in the City were quick to take avoiding action, marking down the leaders, especially the telecoms, where Vodafone, the British market's second-biggest stock by market capitalisation, fell away again to reach its lowest level since the end of 1998 as the market revisited its fears about the potential impact on the share price of the sale of the 3.6 billion shares overhanging the market.

The day's domestic economic news, on UK house sales and consumer credit, caused a few raised eyebrows but was not being put forward as behind the market's continued jitters.

Consumer credit in April was double the March figure and much higher than the market was going for, while the latest survey by the Nationwide Building Society showed house prices rose by 0.8 per cent in May, compared with a 0.3 per cent decline in the previous month.

Turnover in equities was 2.1 billion shares.