It was touch-and-go in the last few minutes of trading but the FTSE 100 index scrambled a few points higher yesterday, after hitting its lowest level since October 1998 on Wednesday.
The blue-chip benchmark edged up 10.4 points to 5,286.1, but it was hardly a convincing rally. Both the FTSE 250 and the SmallCap indices lost further ground, with the former falling 1.2 to 5,933.7 and the latter dropping 7.4 to 2,714.7, its lowest close since November 1999.
The Techmark 100 index of leading technology stocks inched up 4.51 from Wednesday's all-time low to close at 1,481.53, still 74 per cent below March 2000's peak, at the height of dotcom mania.
The international background was not very supportive. Wall Street, which is having a volatile week, could not sustain Wednesday's rally in the face of some mixed economic data and downbeat news from Compaq and Hewlett-Packard. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 164 points on Wednesday, had dropped 100 points just before the London close. The Nasdaq also lost ground.
Domestically, there was some encouragement for equity bulls. A blizzard of corporate results saw no great shocks to match Tuesday's warning from Invensys. Figures from British Telecom, BG, AstraZeneca and ICI all passed muster.
Electronics group Cookson managed a double-digit relief rally when its results were no worse than expected. Oil stocks gave some support to the market as the crude price rose in response to production cuts from OPEC.
But telecoms group Energis suffered again, following Wednesday's revenue warning, as analysts scrambled to downgrade their forecasts; the shares lost another 19 per cent.
After the FTSE's Wednesday's fall to its lowest level since October 1998, the technical analysts have been scurrying to update their charts.
Turnover was just shy of the £2 billion mark by the 6 p.m. count, with Energis extremely active, topping £100 million.
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