A year on from the start of the brave new world of order-driven trading and 11 years on from the crash of 1987, there was no follow-through yesterday of the strong gains that drove the UK's leading stocks sharply higher last week.

The resurgence of confidence that came after the US Federal Reserve's surprise cut in US interest rates last Thursday showed signs of waning as some market observers began to adopt a much more cautious view of the reasons behind the reduction.

Also, there was more bad news for the stock market fraternity on the jobs front with news of staff cuts at Greig Middleton.

The rather gloomy trend in the front-line stocks did not spill over into the rest of the market, however. The FTSE 250 and FTSE SmallCap indices managed to record modest overall gains, helped by a flurry of actual and rumoured takeover news among the second and third-line issues.

The FTSE 100 did manage to finish the session well above the day's lows however, with the market's optimists pointing to the latest improvement in gilts amid the growing clamour for a further reduction in domestic rates.

A reduction in interest rates is expected possibly even before the next meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, scheduled for November 4th and 5th.

Selling pressure in the FTSE 100 emerged from the outset, despite the impressive closing performance by Wall Street on Friday evening.

Sentiment in London was also eroded by worries that Wall Street would come in easier at yesterday's opening. In the event, the Dow dipped at the start only to rally well and post a near 50-point gain as London finished for the day.

Turnover in equities was 768.3 million shares.