LONDON'S blue-chip FTSE-100 index was up more than 50 points at one stage yesterday, but its gains were eroded in the afternoon by uninspired trading on Wall Street.
The Footsie, which took some strength from a steadier picture in global stock markets, ended 8.4 points higher on 5870.7.
''We had a bit of a relief rally,'' said a senior equity trader at a leading European investment bank.
''Asia markets held steady, so did Europe, and there is talk of more corporate activity to come.''
The Footsie had plunged 100.5 points on Wednesday, on grave concerns about the health of Asian economies and major troubles in Russia and these factors are seen keeping it range-bound.
Nerves were also jangled
yesterday by rising tensions between Pakistan and India.
Trading volume, at 1069 million shares, was fairly impressive for a Friday. But it was boosted by the disposal of the 16% stake in hotels group Queens Moat
Houses, which was held by Banque Nationale de Paris.
Overnight gains on Wall Street and advancing Continental
European stock markets lent strength to stocks in London.
However, Russian shares tumbled another 3.75% after rating agency Moody's cut the country's long-term foreign currency debt rating and cited a litany of
economic problems in the country.
Asian stocks staged a recovery, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng index adding 0.64% and Indonesian shares ending 1.51% higher. South Korea's composite index put on 4.19%.
London-listed shares with heavy exposure to Asia bounced back. In the financial sector, Midland Bank parent HSBC jumped 57p to 1600p, Schroders jumped 48p to 1798p and Standard Chartered added 12p to 761p.
Telecoms group Cable &
Wireless was up 18p on 693p.
Elsewhere, software group Misys - which attracted buying interest because of its inclusion in Morgan Stanley's index of the world's top stocks - was a star performer, jumping 181.25p to 3693.75p.
Banking group Halifax, which is also being included and has also been helped by speculation about a merger between it and Royal Bank of Scotland, added 11p to 1035p.
But food group Hillsdown tumbled 23.5p to 183p, on news that advanced takeover talks with would-be suitor Unigate had been terminated. Unigate added 28.5p to 665p.
Second-line stocks ended little changed overall.
The FTSE-Mid 250 index, which has now risen in 13 of the last 15 sessions, was up 2.9 on 5901.4 points.
Government bonds were slightly firmer, with June gilt futures ending just above 109-7/8.
News that billionaire George Soros was pumping #100m into Delancey Estates to act as his investment vehicle in the UK property market sent the company into orbit - up 47.5p to 150p.
British Aerospace climbed 24p to 543p after it announced that it would be forming a joint venture with French engineering giant Dassault Aviation to research hi-tech systems for combat aircraft.
Less fortunate was BSkyB, which fell 9p to 431p after English Premier League officials rejected its plans for pay-per-view soccer.
The embattled British Biotech tumbled another 5.5p to 48.5p, but analysts could see no particular reason for the more than 10% fall.
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