That really was the week that was. Cheltenham races (always one of the City's most favoured attractions for client hospitality), the much-hyped Lastminute.com flotation, Wall Street's biggest-ever daily points rise and, to cap it all, St Patrick's Day. "Enough," as one market-maker said, "to drive investors to the drink sectors."
Sadly, drinks stocks Allied Domecq, Whitbread and Scottish & Newcastle drop out of the FTSE 100 index on Monday, with stocks such as Baltimore, Freeserve and Psion taking their place.
There was plenty of high drama and extreme volatility affecting London's equity market yesterday. Many of the "new economy" stocks, so badly mauled on Wednesday and Thursday, staged a determined fightback, while the resurgent "old economy" issues were on the receiving end of some substantial downside pressure.
The volatility was partly caused by the expiries in mid-morning of the March FTSE futures contract and index options, which coincided with the FTSE 100 giving up most of its earlier 155-point rise. Dealers are now braced for Tuesday's budget, which coincides with the meeting of the US Federal Reserve's rate-setting Open Market Committee.
The influence of Wall Street on London was immense at the outset, but it quickly faded. The FTSE 100 index blasted back through 6,700, peaking at 6,713.1, but then embarked on a relentless decline which saw the index drop back to post a 53.1 fall just before Wall Street opened. At the close, the index had stabilised, eventually finishing a net 0.8 higher at 6,558.0, which left it only 10.8 lower over the week.
The other FTSE indices finished well below their best levels, but still registered good gains. The 250 settled 48.4 higher at 6,565.8, having hit 6,623.4 at best, while the SmallCap was finally 34.5 up at 3,410.3.
