The London market's two-day rally ground to a halt yesterday with still-fragile sentiment in equities dented by yet another warning of declining sales at Motorola of the US and poor numbers from Micron, another US group.
The Motorola news was not announced until after Wall Street had closed for Tuesday's session, and consequently had no impact on what was a strong performance by US markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed with a three-figure gain, having topped the 10,000 only to slip back below that level at the close. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, held above the 2,000 level.
There was plenty of domestic economic news to keep dealers on the ball. UK Global trade data for October caused few problems for the market, while the minutes of the December meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee showed that two members voted for another 25 basis points cut in rates.
Although closing off its worst of the day, the FTSE 100 was still 30.5 lower at 5,120.6 as the curtain fell on the trading session. The FTSE 250 index was less impressive, closing 13.9 easier at 5,835.4, after being down 23.7 at one stage, while the FTSE SmallCap gradually drifted away after a steady opening to the day to settle 4.7 easier at 2,581.8. But by far and away the worst performance among the main indices came from the Techmark 100 which was finally 24.99, or 1.7 per cent, down at 1,450.48, having been as low as 1,441.11.
Turnover in equities was a not unimpressive 2.98 billion shares, and it was the telecoms sector that provided the three heaviest traded stocks - in Vodafone, BT and MMO 2. That trio together accounted for almost 400 million shares, or 13.3 per cent of the total.
Activity is now expected to tail off as the Christmas holiday period looms. But Friday's dual expiry of the FTSE December futures contract and index options should bring a final burst of activity to the market.
The banks continued to provide a prop for the 100 index, with Lloyds TSB and Abbey National the leading performers in the sector. The oil majors suffered from a general downgrade from Credit Suisse First Boston.
