It was a day of mixed fortunes for London's equity market yesterday, with front-line stocks represented by the FTSE 100 partly reversing Tuesday's modest falls - but with the broader market running into further persistent pockets of profit-taking.

The overall outcome of the day's events, as measured by the all-encompassing FTSE AllShare index, was a modest 2.81 gain at 2,562.32. Apart from the first few minutes of the trading session, when the FTSE 100 tumbled more than 26 points as dealers awaited the institutions' first moves, the 100 index never looked really threatened. It moved up strongly in mid-morning to hit a session best of 5,367.6, only to drift back and finish the day a net 15.1 firmer at 5,318.8.

Behind the uncertain overall trend was a further shift out of recently strong TMT stocks - which have enjoyed startling gains since hitting record lows in mid to late September - back into more defensive areas of the market, such as food and general retailers, and other consumer stocks.

And it was noticeable that drug stocks and the banks sector, two very heavily weighted areas of the market, were well supported all day, helping to prop up the FTSE 100 index.

Commenting on the market's moves, one salesman said there had been general disappointment that the Dow Jones Industrial Average had failed to drive through to recapture the 10,000 by the Thanksgiving Day holiday. "That was seen as a viable target and there is real disappointment that it has eluded us." The Dow took a 75 points hit on Tuesday evening and came under further pressure in early trading yesterday, when it lost another 87 points.

And the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was also pressured on the downside, sliding 21 points shortly after London dealers closed their trading books.

Mr Philip Shaw, economist at Investec, said: "There were few clues to suggest that another easing is due shortly, but we remain of the view that rates will fall by at least 25 basis points again early new year." Markets are now gearing up for the forthcoming first stage freefloat rebalancing of the MSCI indices, which takes place on November 30th.

Turnover in equities was 2.56 billion shares.