Market Report - London

A typically quiet Friday in London's equity market saw the leaders backtrack and post modest overall losses. Those falls came in the wake of the slightly higher-than-expected preliminary figure for British gross domestic product in the third quarter.

A 0.5 per cent increase in GDP, compared with a consensus forecast of 0.4 per cent, was seen as likely to reduce the probability of a 50-basis-points reduction in British interest rates after the November meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee.

The view in the market was that a 25-basis-points cut was now much more likely.

Dealers in London said the GDP numbers tied in with the concerns that have emerged this week that the stock market's recent rally might well have run its course. Few are convinced that the world's economic problems are over.

But although the leaders faltered, the market's second-line stocks and the smallcaps remained in relatively good heart, helped in part by talk that some of the domestic institutions had continued to switch from the leaders into the cheaper stocks.

The FTSE 100 ended the day 12.8 off at 5,217.1, reducing the gain over the week to 84.0, or 1.6 per cent.

Although 3.8 down on the day at 4,652.2, the FTSE 250 was still 88.3 or 1.9 per cent higher over the five-day period, although yesterday's minor setback brought a halt to the 10-session sequence of winning performances by the second-line stocks.

The star performer among the FTSE indices was the FTSE SmallCap, which extended its run of upside moves to a ninth consecutive session.

"The institutions are convinced there is value in the smallcaps, especially if domestic rates come down," said one specialist trader.

The retail, oil and leisure sectors were seen as areas of potential concern for the market. One of the stories hitting market confidence yesterday was the slowdown in clothing sales.

And the run of poor results from the big US oil companies upset London's oil majors.