LONDON'S equity market, wary of the recent bouts of extreme volatility on Wall Street doggedly refused to follow the Dow Jones industrial average's big gains overnight and at the outset of trading yesterday.
Analysts said the big UK institutions had been badly caught out by the recent wild moves by the Dow, which triggered some premature shifts of stance.
Sentiment in London, seen as stable at the outset of the trading session, was damaged somewhat shortly after the opening with news that UK gross domestic product for the second had come in slightly disappointingly and up
0.4 per cent, against consensus forecasts of a rise of around 0.6 per cent.
That number was at odds with the most recent economic data published in London, which suggested a more buoyant manufacturing sector, according to the Confederation of British Industry's latest quarterly report and the big rise in retail sales during June.
Customer business on Thursday topped the £2 billion mark reaching £2.05 billion, the highest for some weeks.
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