THE absence of the much rumoured bid for one of the FTSE 100 stocks, and a sharp correction in global bonds took the wind out of the sails of the equity market.
Unable to build on modest early gains, which were mostly prompted by the 50 point jump in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the FTSE 100 index gradually fell away throughout a relatively busy session.
Granada was the FTSE 100's top gun for much of the session, boosted by hopes of an early sale of many of the hotels it acquired in its successful bid for Forte, but later fell away on some determined profit taking.
Among the big winners in the Footsie, there was keen institutional buying of Bank of Scotland. Hints of imminent good drilling news from its Algerian operations helped Lasmo move higher.
Turnover at 6 p.m. totalled 976.1 million, one of the heaviest daily figures for many weeks and boosted substantially by the bought deals in BAA and 3i Group. Turnover in those two stocks, 124 million, accounted for almost 13 per cent of the market total.
