One of the most depressing weeks in the London market for some considerable time ended with all the main indices under pressure again and continuing to suffer from the fallout from the speech delivered to the US Congress by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve. That speech was interpreted as an indication that the Fed chairman would sanction another increase in US interest rates if their is further evidence of inflationary pressures building in the US economic system. Although dismayed by the six-day sequence of marked weakness in the FTSE 100 index of leading stocks, marketmakers were by no means downhearted.

"Down six days on the trot, it looks bad on the face of it, but the market really isn't on the ropes. Investors shouldn't get too excited over falls of this nature. Outside of the programme-linked activity turnover has been very thin," was the view of a senior trader at one of the European investment banks.

But there was no doubting the market's weakness, with a fleeting rally at the outset of trading quickly routed and the market never looking likely to resist the downside pressures for the rest of the day.