There was no respite for London's equity market yesterday with persistent sellers getting the upper hand over mostly reluctant buyers as the prospect of a rise in US interest rates next week continued to niggle at market sentiment. What made matters worse for dealers and investors was that the latest market setback took place following two sets of rather predictable and benign inflation reports, from Britain and the US, plus comforting news of public finances in Britain.

Both reports drew appreciative remarks from analysts and traders but failed to produce substantial buying from global institutions, which continue to run scared that a tightening of US rates next week might not be the last in the short term.

At the finish of an erratic trading session the FTSE 100 was left with a 69.0 decline at 6,166.4, only a fraction above the session low of 6,166.2, recorded a minute before trading ceased.