A morning rally in London faltered yesterday when more signs of nervousness from Wall Street emerged in afternoon trading. But the day's economic news helped steady share prices after Wednesday's losses.
Inflation figures for November and the latest monthly survey from the Confederation of British Industry, gave little or no cause for concern. All the leading FT SE indices clawed back some of Wednesday's severe losses.
The market was additionally cheered by news that interest rates had been left on hold for the time being after Wednesday's meeting between the chancellor and the governor of the Bank of England.
But during the afternoon another bout of nervousness on Wall Street immediately made its presence felt across increasingly fraught European stock markets. An early 30 point rise in the Dow quickly turned into a 20 point fall.
The gilts market never looked anything but shaky throughout the day, eventually giving way in worrying fashion. The 10 year gilt was down 18 ticks and the 20 year issue almost a full point down at the close.
Marketmakers, whilst noting the latest show of volatility on Wall Street and in London, were slightly more relaxed about the day's events.
Turnover at 6 p.m. was a respectable 693 million shares, and split evenly between FT SE 100 and other stocks. Customer business on Wednesday was valued at £1.39 billion sterling, the highest daily figure since last Thursday. And intramarket maker trading was also on the increase, reaching £635.1 million, compared with Wednesday's £596.4 million and Tuesday's £433.4 million.
Tradepoint, the order driven trading system, enjoyed one of its busiest ever trading days yesterday, winning big market share in two Footsie stocks, AB Foods and Barclays Bank.
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