London's equity market held up well in the face of the steep overnight decline on Wall Street and a general lack of investor interest ahead of the long bank holiday weekend.
The US stock market also caused minor problems for London at the outset of trading on Wall Street yesterday, the Dow slipping away and posting a 40-point fall after comments about perceived inflated equity price levels made by Mr Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve at a conference in Wyoming.
At the finish of the trading session the FTSE 100 was left with an 8.7 decline at 6,375.2, after extremes of 6,413.3 and 6,350.1, leaving the index 3.1 per cent higher over the week.
The FTSE 250 rallied late in the day and settled 7.3 ahead at 6,054.3, up 38.5 or 0.6 per cent. The FTSE SmallCap, meanwhile, rose another 10.6, extending the gain on the week to 58.63, or 2.1 per cent.
The SmallCap remained one of the index stars of the week, registering its 11th consecutive rise, hitting record intraday and closing peaks as it did so and still responding to the recent spate of takeover bids among the smaller capitalised stocks. Dealers also noted that the institutions had begun to step up the chase for many of the smaller stocks, which have underperformed the leaders for some time.
