A final flood of new cash into the equity market before the end of the tax year, mostly representing personal equity plans, took the FTSE 100 index briefly back above the 6,100 level and to within a point of its intra-day high before it ran out of steam.

As soon as the PEP influences subsided, however, the market came clattering back, falling back to a session low of 6,024.5 in mid-afternoon. Dealers became edgy once again about the recent sharp declines in the Tokyo and Hong Kong stock markets. Traders also pointed to next week's meeting of the monetary policy committee as posing another threat to the market's recent run. But the market's setback failed to attract any follow-through selling and the FTSE 100 staged its now-common burst of activity during the last 10 minutes of the session. A deficit of around two points during the last minute of trading was transformed into a gain of 11.4, taking Footsie to a closing high of 6,064.2.

News of a surprising decline in the US non-farm payroll, which showed a fall of 36,000 against an expected increase of around 235,000, saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average push through the 9,000 level, before coming off not long after London closed. But London stubbornly refused to follow the US market higher, until its late flurry.