UNILEVER commanded centre stage in a generally lacklustre London market. Interest in the group was sparked by results which were much better than City expectations.

Plans to sell off its speciality chemicals businesses with a combined turnover of £3 billion sterling also delighted brokers who pushed the shares up 87p to £14.79 1/2.

Elsewhere, the market found little to get excited about following a 49-point fall on Wall Street, with oil multi-nationals dragging the FT-SE index lower.

By the close of dealing the index was down 3.3 at 4304.4.

Six month results from Alan Sugar's Amstrad showed a major fall in interim losses. The figures went down well, resulting in a gain of 10p to 174p.

Full year results from BP which accompanied a warning that oil prices might fluctuate sharply sent the shares down 27p to 694p while Reuters lost 16p to 626p after a warning that installations of its new prestigious 3000 dealing system range were slower than sales.

Other oil groups were dragged lower with Enterprise marked 24p lower at 648p, Shell down 11p at £10.53 1/2 and Lasmo 12p weaker at 242p.

Strong gainers on the main index included Reckitt & Colman, up 18p to 727 1/2p as Unilever's results reflected well on the rest of the household products and foods sectors.

Associated British Foods was another winner, up 15p to 496p.

Drugs group Zeneca climbed 18p to £17.80 1/2 following approval by the US authorities yesterday for an agricultural fungicide.

Prism Rail was a major falter, dropping 40p to 395p as it was revealed that National Express is the preferred bidder for the ScotRail franchise. National Express accelerated 9p to 564 1/2p.

Cadbury Schweppes, the confectionery and soft drinks group, announced it had completed the sale of its 51 percent stake in CocaCola Schweppes Beverages to Coca-Cola Enterprises in a £622.5 million deal. That deal coupled with a more positive food sector, boosted Cadbury 5p to 482p.

Bargain hunting helped music group EMI to bounce 26p to £11.26 1/2 following falls of recent days caused by fears of falling classical CD sales.

Good news for the construction industry with a report showing that strong performances in the private housing, private commercial and infrastructure Sectors helped orders in the last three months of 1996 exceed the total for the previous quarter by 8 per cent.

Building and construction groups were generally buoyant on the news. Jarvis added a penny to 179p, Morgan Sindall added 4p to 222 1/2p and George Wimpey nudged a penny higher to 132 1/2p.

With no sign of takeover activity in the insurance sector, major players which have raced ahead on continuing merger speculation, fell back today.

British Aerospace fell 28p to £12.25 1/2, GKN dipped 3p to 981 1/2p and Vosper Thornycroft eased 2/p to 947/p.

ICI enjoyed a rise of 12p to 752p as investors reckoned the share price falls of recent days was overdone.

The chemical group's rise came despite the pound strengthening further on the foreign exchanges.