A last minute flurry of buying allowed the FTSE 100 index to end its two-day losing streak but the rest of the UK market remained weak. The day had started poorly with investors reacting nervously to the overnight news that Enron, the giant energy trading company, was close to collapse. At its worst, Footsie was down 53.1 to 5,152.1. But investors seemed to decide that the demise of Enron would not have significant knock-on effects on the UK financial system and the market duly stabilised by lunchtime.

UK economic data appeared to show that consumer sentiment remained robust despite the September 11th terrorist attacks. New consumer borrowing in October hitt £1.53 billion sterling in October, compared with £1.52 billion in September. Mortgage lending was also strong.

"The resilience of personal borrowing (plus the massive loosening of fiscal policy) suggests UK growth will continue to outperform the global norm," said Mr Michael Saunders, UK economist at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney.

In the afternoon, the market was once again dominated by Wall Street. US economic data were mixed with durable goods orders surging 12.8 per cent in October, the biggest gain on record, but initial jobless claims jumping to 488,000 in the week to November 24. Continuing claims rose 301,000 to 4.02 million, the biggest one-week rise in 27 years. Wall Street seemed undecided about the implications of the figures, with indices drifting in early trading, although the Dow Jones Industrial Average had edged slightly higher by the time of the London close.

The FTSE 100 inched up 3.3 to 5,208.5 by the close but the other indices finished lower. The FTSE 250 dropped 47.5 to 5,830.4, the SmallCap fell 12.1 to 2,585.2 and the Techmark 100 declined 10.72 at 1,482.38.

Activity in the market was dominated by the placing of part of Wellcome Trust's stake in GlaxoSmithkline, with turnover in the pharmaceuticals group almost reaching 200m shares. That helped boost overall market activity to 2.35 billion shares by the 6 p.m. count.