Another sunny day in London, a holiday in Europe and a limited roster of economic and corporate news left the UK stock market struggling for direction yesterday.
There was a modest recovery from Wednesday's falls, with the FTSE 100 recrossing the 5,900 level in early trading. At its best, the blue chip benchmark hit 5,950 but there was little indication of a serious assault on 6,000. By the close, Footsie was up just 18.5 at 5,915.9.
Economic data showed that the manufacturing sector was still in difficulty. The Confederation of British Industry's monthly survey showed export orders continued to weaken in a slowing global economy, although domestic orders improved slightly. On balance, those expecting output to fall slightly outweighed those expecting it to rise.
The foreign exchange markets brought manufacturers some modest relief, with the pound losing some of the ground it gained recently against the euro. However, sterling's continued weakness against the US dollar was not such good news for the UK corporate sector, as most raw materials are priced in dollars.
The FTSE 250 fell 27.9 to 6,635.8 while the SmallCap index gained 6.9 to 3,146.6. The Techmark 100 index of leading technology stocks slipped 0.36 to 2,116.39.
With a holiday weekend looming, there was little to keep dealers at their desks. Just 1.62 billion shares were traded by 6 p.m.
On the corporate front, Railtrack was the main news-maker, with a larger-than-expected £534 million loss depressing the shares, despite a maintained dividend. Business Post, Premier Farnell and Scapa all issued fairly gloomy statements, citing factors such as economic weakness in the US and UK and the downturn in the technology sector.
