A spirited fightback by some of the tech/media/telecom (TMT) stocks that have taken such a hammering in recent sessions, plus some powerful performances from the financial sector, helped drag the FTSE 100 index clear of the 6,000 mark yesterday.

But in a performance similar to Tuesday's, it was a much more difficult day for the rest of London's stock market, with the FTSE 250 and SmallCap indices and the Techmark 100 all continuing to suffer at the hands of the many sellers of the second- and third-ranking TMT stocks.

The downside pressure in the market was evident from the outset, as market-makers took fright at the overnight slide on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones finished the overnight session on a sombre note, down 120 points. The Nasdaq Composite plummeted 199 points.

The latter had a scatter-gun effect on a TMT sector still reeling from the impact of bearish developments over the past few weeks. That bearish news has gathered momentum in recent sessions, starting with the failure of Boo.com, the online retailer, and continuing with the postponement of several initial public offerings.

Paradoxically, it was the news that Prudential had decided to press on with its flotation of Egg, its online banking subsidiary, that coincided with the start of a rally in many of the TMTs.

At the finish of another erratic trading day, the FTSE 100 was 31.8 firmer at 6,118.6, helped by Wall Street's steadier trend. The index has dipped below 6,000 twice this week, with the bears insisting that it will eventually crack on the downside, pressured by the deteriorating trend in the TMTs.

Bulls, on the other hand, take the view that underlying support around 6,000 is sufficient to keep the index above that level, although they concede that the index will have to make a significant upside move in the short term, above 6,200, to entice further buyers. While the FTSE 100 rallied, the 250 and SmallCap indices endured steep falls, the former retreating 60.3 to 6,091.7 and the SmallCap losing 25.9 to 3,144,9. The Techmark 100 dropped another 53.9 to 2,864.23, its sixth consecutive decline. The index has more than halved from its March 6th record of 5,743.3. It is now only a few weak performances away from dropping back below 6,000 for the first time since mid-April, when global markets were crushed by the poor inflation figures that signalled the recent hike in US interest rates.