It was hard to tell whether it was the calm before the storm or just the calm before the match. The stock market had one of its quieter days yesterday and suffered little follow-through from Friday's slide in New York where the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 100 points lower.

A comparatively flat performance was underscored by light volume. And while low turnover is common at the beginning and end of the week, it was apparently reduced further by anticipation of England's game against Romania.

"Looking around the dealing floor, I would say that we're only running at 50 per cent today," said one senior sales trader.

Consequently, an early markdown in the Footsie of more than 70 points found little support, and the index rallied slowly throughout the day.

By the close, and with no significant economic data or serious follow-through on Wall Street to influence the market, Footsie had narrowed its loss to only 23 down at 5,725.1.

However, the picture was much bleaker in the second division, which dribbled lower for the ninth trading session in a row. The FTSE 250 is heavily represented by engineering stocks, which are particularly sensitive to raised interest rates and a strong pound.

And weekend press comment that the Bank of England might be tempted to raise rates again at its next monetary policy committee, as well as sterling's first close above DM3.00 in UK trading since April, heightened that sensitivity.

By the close, the FTSE 250 was off 36.6 at 5,561.9, representing a slide of almost 7 per cent in two weeks.

The SmallCap index was off even more in percentage terms. It fell 33.4 to 2,661.4.

The fall in the equity market was matched by the growing divergence from the bond market where 10-year government paper was up nearly half a point as the problems with the Japanese economy encouraged a move towards safer havens.

At yesterday's close, Footsie was recording a near 400-point slide since April. But the strategists at BT Alex Brown, who forecast 6,000 for the year end, are worried that more penalties could be taken.

In a note gloomily entitled "It's all going horribly wrong", Bob Semple argues that estimates of 8 per cent profits growth will be shattered by the resurgence of sterling, Asian difficulties and the squeeze on domestic companies.

Overall turnover by 6 p.m. was 675.4 million shares, the lowest for three weeks.