It was boom and bust for Britain's leading stocks yesterday.

Prompted by Wall Street's overnight burst of strength, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 121 points, the FTSE 100, London's benchmark index, quickly raced up more than 100 points and surged to within 11 points of the 6,000 level.

The market's early euphoria did not last long. Flurries of profit-taking and a revival of concerns about the potential for further economic and financial upheavals in South America and elsewhere upset investors.

It took a decent opening by the US market yesterday - the Dow was up over 40 points within the first 10 minutes of trading on Wall Street - to bring some stability to a London market looking extremely nervous in the early afternoon. But, as with London, that positive opening in the US did not last long, the Dow sliding back into the red and down 30 points as the UK market closed. As the curtain descended in London, the FTSE 100 index finished 26.2 down at 5,859.5.

The trigger for the sharp reversal in the Footsie's fortunes was some determined selling of a number of the banks, telecoms and oils, all of which are heavily weighted in the index.

Market-makers insisted that the take-over moves against LucasVarity and Adwest Automotive are only the start of what is expected to be a rush of bids in that area. Turnover in equities picked up strongly and pushed through the one billion shares barrier for the 11th out of the past 12 sessions, eventually reaching 1.2 billion.