It had to come to an end. The last day of a week which brought 50 basis-point interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank, saw profit-takers move in and halt the run of seven consecutive gains in the FTSE 100 index.

The FTSE 100 index ended the session 33.9 points off at 5,244.2, having been down to 5,222.8 at its worst of the day. Against that, the FTSE 250 extended its sequence of rises to six straight sessions, pushing up 38.1 to 5,691.9 after hitting 5,694.4. Over the six trading days, the index has jumped over 350 points, or 6.5 per cent. The FTSE SmallCap edged up 6.4 to 2,435.1. The Techmark 100 index ended the day 11.44 lower at 1,490.34, having been down to 1,480.71 earlier in the session.

Dealers said it was little more than profit-taking, much of it concentrated in the banks sector, that pulled the FTSE 100 down. The banks alone accounted for all of the decline in the 100 index, and dealers said sentiment in the broader market remained reasonably secure, backed up by renewed strength in the FTSE 250 and FTSE SmallCap indices.

The big story of the day in London was the start of conditional dealings in MM0

Oil shares made rapid progress, led by Enterprise Oil, very much the junior among the FTSE 100 oil stocks, as the market began to concentrate its mind on the prospects for an even more substantial reduction in OPEC output than the one million barrels a day figure spoken of recently. Talk yesterday suggested a figure of 1.5 million barrels a day.

Commenting on the market's stutter, dealers said the dose of profit-taking came as no surprise, given the market's strong run over the past week and more - and that the FTSE 100's fifth consecutive close above 5,200 was viewed as positive.

Turnover in equities remained highly encouraging, reaching 2.67 billion shares by the close of the trading session. That figure was boosted by the 437 million shares traded in MMO and more than 204 million shares dealt in Vodafone. There was also exceptional activity in Invensys, BP and Granada."