Analysts are always being criticised for not issuing enough "sell" notes. But investors in Railtrack must wish that ABN Amro had maintained the City's cautious tradition.

The broker's devastating analysis of Railtrack's finances, suggesting a target price of 58p, sent the shares down 16.8 per cent and ensured that the track operator will be relegated from the FTSE 100 index. Next, the retailer, is likely to replace Railtrack; the FTSE committee meets today, with its decision based on yesterday's closing prices.

Railtrack was the main sour note in what turned out to be a good day for the London market. For much of the day, Footsie traded in a narrow range but a strong start from the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index in the US ensured that London ended on an upbeat note.

Reassuring trading statements from Lucent Technologies and (late on Monday) from Xilinx reassured tech investors after profit warnings in recent days from Sun Microsystems and Cypress Semiconductor.

Footsie closed 66 ahead at 5,922, just below its best of the day. The blue chip benchmark was given a boost by the strength of Vodafone which rebounded 4.5 per cent from recent weakness.

The other indices were also higher with the FTSE 250 up 30.5 at 6,646.2, the SmallCap 11.3 ahead at 3,126.5 and the Techmark 100 advancing 11.71 to 2,059.15. Attention can now shift to interest rates and the general election. The Bank of England's monetary policy committee announces its interest rate decision at noon today but data out yesterday appeared to indicate that the UK economy is more robust than thought.

The purchasing managers' survey of the services sector showed a rise from 51.2 to 52.0, while the Confederation of British Industry's survey of the retail sector showed a modest increase in stores reporting higher sales. The Halifax house prices survey showed a 1.5 per cent gain on the month.