Footsie closes day with a flourish

During another day of hefty swings in sentiment, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index moved in a 100-point arc, before embarking on a strong rally that left the index at a session high.

However, dealers remained unconvinced of the market's ability to maintain the upward tack in the midst of the current volatility. Footsie has just recorded its best-ever individual points performance and its third-worst points decline in the same week.

"Underneath the mood swings this market still feels horrible. We're still nowhere like being out of the woods in terms of the global problems and I wouldn't want to chase the market until we get much near to 5,000," was the candid view of a senior marketmaker at one big London securities house.

He cited the long-standing problems that have periodically left London's market stranded in recent months, notably the economic crisis that has affected much of the Far East and carved lumps out of many Asian stock markets.

Investors' most recent concern has been Russia's economic crisis, which has seen a substantial devaluation of the rouble and a moratorium on debt repayments. Adding to the uncertainty in global markets was the decision of President Yeltsin to sack the whole of his cabinet at the weekend.

Although wary of Mr Yeltsin's move, dealers initially paid more attention to Wall Street's strong recovery last Friday evening, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average pick up from being almost 300 points down to finish the session only 77 points off.

The Hong Kong market also helped sentiment, although its 4 per cent rally seemed to have been helped along by further hefty support from the Hong Kong government.

At the close, the FTSE 100 index showed a 76.7 gain at 5,553.7, a far cry from its worst position of the day, when the index recorded a 32.5 decline.

The other FTSE indices were much less volatile and did not mirror the big moves in the Footsie. The FTSE 250 made tentative progress at the start of the day and posted an 8.6 gain at best, within an hour of the start, but later fell away to end 18.5 down at 5,056.0.