There were worrying signals from London's equity market yesterday as an unconvincing opening gave way to a period of bullishness only for the market to dive at the end of the session in response to a downturn by Wall Street.
By the end of the session the FTSE 100, which at the height of its mid-session enthusiasm, looked likely to launch another attack on its all-time intraday record of 6,663.8, had turned tail in line with Wall Street.
Such was its fall from grace that the index ended a rather worry-looking 17.1 down on balance at 6,545.5. In its prime the index had marched up more than 60 points and got to within 40 points of that intraday peak. Unlike the front-line index, the FTSE 250 hit record closing and intraday peaks for the sixth consecutive session, although that index also ed off its best levels.
It raced up to a record 6,098.5 before easing back to close 11.4 ahead at a closing high of 6,089.7. The FTSE SmallCap, meanwhile, extended its recent run of excellent performances, settling at the best of the day and up 13.0 at 2,735.1.
