The London equity market's run of eight straight winning sessions came to a grinding halt yesterday, ironically on the day the Bank of England's monetary policy committee sanctioned another reduction in domestic interest rates. Dealers said the 25 basis point cut, the sixth reduction since October last year and which took British rates down to 5.25 per cent, the lowest since February 1994, had already been factored in to the market.

"Despite the jitters prompted by Wednesday's stronger-than-expected services survey and industrial production number, the market was still going for a cut," said one marketmaker.

He added that the downside pressure in London was never substantial and pointed to the robust performances of the second and third-tier stocks as evidence that the institutions were not sellers. "The leaders are off because they've gone up in a straight line for eight days," he said.

Dealers ignored Wall Street's powerful showing overnight, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average race back through the 10,000 level. At 6 p.m., turnover had reached 920 million shares compared with Wednesday's one billion and Tuesday's 980 million.