Pharmaceuticals halt City blue-chip run

A sell-off in the pharmaceuticals sector ensured that City blue chips did not extend their record-breaking run yesterday. But although the leading indices were down, there were still continuing signs of speculative activity at the small company end of the market.

The FTSE SmallCap index managed yet another all-time peak, gaining 12.4 to 2,944.0. The FTSE 100 index started off the day as if it was determined to continue Friday's strong performance. Within a couple of minutes of the opening, the blue-chip benchmark had set a new intraday high of 6,774.7, up 32.5.

With Wall Street opening in a lacklustre mood, the FTSE 100 index slipped to 6,657.1, down 85.1 by mid- afternoon, before a modest recovery allowed the index to close at 6,694, off 48.2 on the day.

The FTSE 250 index ended 16.6 off at 6,309.4, despite a bid approach for the diversified industrial group Wassall.

Turnover by the 6 p.m. count was 1.94 billion shares, not quite up to last week's standard, but still fairly healthy for a Monday. Vodafone was once again the most active Footsie stock, while penny share Ronson contributed 164 million shares.