THE stock market crawled to a sickly close ahead of the three day holiday weekend. Many strategists and traders had left early, defeated by investors' lack of energy and enthusiasm.

And while the FTSE 100 index managed to record a gain of 5.1 to 3,752.1 on the day, it was still down 1 per cent over the week.

There has been some confusion about the cause of the market's weak tone, which was highlighted not only by declining prices but the lack of genuine turnover.

Several analysts pointed to increasing concern about the political climate and the possibility of a snap general election.

Behind that, however, was a feeling that fund managers are quietly shifting assets. Senior traders believe one leading investment fund has been selling heavily through the derivatives market.

And, while derivative volume has not been unusually high, the futures contract on the Footsie has traded consistently at a big discount to the underlying cash market.

This compares to a week when British government bonds, European equities and, particularly US equities, have performed well.

Bearish strategists argue that the rally in equities over the last year has been related to mergers and acquisitions rather than investment buying.