TRADERS in London's equity market were fighting over the few scraps of institutional business being transacted at the start of what promises to be a quiet week.

Apart from the dearth of customer business, as opposed to trading between market makers, there was a growing feeling that the close of the second quarter could bring a series of substantial profits downgrades in the manufacturing sectors.

Also worrying for market observers was London's latest refusal to follow the lead of Wall Street. Up 45 points on Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average made further rapid progress at the outset yesterday, rising over 30 points, responding to a comforting performance by US bonds. Gilts did their best to support the British equity market, holding up well ahead of today's £3 billion sterling auction.

As was the case last week, there was no shortage of sporting distractions for the next two weeks, investors' interest, already minimal after Royal Ascot and the Test match, will be further diluted by tennis at Wimbledon.

"Institutional dealers prefer the sports screens to the trading screens at the moment and there is precious little we can do about it," noted the head of market making at one British securities house.

Important economic news items are thin on the ground and while there is a long list of company news items, only one FTSE 100 index constituent, Asda, the food retailing group, is expected to report.

At the close of one of the quietest sessions for many weeks Footsie gave ground for the fifth consecutive trading day, ending a net 11.5 off at 3,710.8, while the FTSE Mid 250, representing the market's second line stocks fell for the sixth out of the last seven days. That index settled 7.4 down at 4,433.3.

The market kicked off the session in reasonable fashion, with Footsie opening over 7 points higher, as market makers lifted their opening levels to accommodate Wall Street's rise on Friday night. But with no evidence of any substantial buying interest from the big funds, prices began to falter, driving the index into the red within fifteen minutes.

The prospect of a series of lucrative Ministry of Defence contracts drove British Aerospace to the top of the Footsie performance table. But shares in British Steel were hampered by rumours that the company may be considering the purchase of Hoogovens steel business, valued in excess of £750 million by some industry observers.

Turnover at 6 p.m. was 599.4 million shares. Retail business on Friday was valued at £1.71 billion.