THERE were no real shocks or surprises for the stock market in the British budget. "It was pretty much a non-event for us," said the head of market-making at one big British securities house.

"London's performance tomorrow will hinge on what Wall Street does tonight, rather than on the budget measures, the majority of which came as no surprise," he continued.

Wall Street was the prime motivation behind London's topsy-turvy performance yesterday, which saw the FT-SE 100 index come within six points of breaking through the 4,100 level, before reversing rapidly in mid-budget, as the Dow saw an initial big gain replaced by hefty losses.

At the close of what began as a frantic trading session, Footsie ended with a 13.8 gain at 4,068.4, just 0.2 above the session low and a far cry from its early Wall Street-inspired jump.

"If Wall Street drops 100 points, then we'll be under big pressure. Otherwise we should be able to consolidate and thereafter move on upwards," the market-maker said.

Mr Philip Isherwood, UK strategist at Kleinwort Benson, said he expected shares to move ahead this morning if Wall Street performed steadily.

The FT-SE Mid-250 index had a more sedate day than Footsie, closing a modest 1.1 up at 4,423.4, well off its session high - 4,431.0 - white the FT-SE SmallCap ended 1.5 firmer at 2,167.7.

Mr Richard Jeffrey, group chief economist at Charterhouse Tilney, the stockbroker, took a more cautious line: "In providing a significant stimulus to consumer spending, this will refocus attention on interest rates; it's unavoidable, interest rates will have to rise further before the election and towards 8.5 per cent after an election."

The budget proposals were concentrated on the usual targets: tobacco, some drinks, petrol, diesel as well as road tax, but most of the damage had already been factored into the affected areas.

The big increase in taxation on "alcopops" had been widely anticipated but hit Bass and Merrydown. Imperial, the tobacco company, was sold after the big rise in duty on tobacco products.

Holiday companies like Airtours and First Choice were mildly affected by the increase in airport taxes, as were insurance companies by the increase in insurance tax to 4 per cent.

Turnover at the 6 p.m. reading was 808.4 million shares, boosted significantly by a large number of bed and breakfast deals which were thought to have accounted for around 10 per cent of overall volume. Customer business on Monday was a lowly £1.1 billion sterling.