Another bout of weakness in debt-product markets and a dose of old-fashioned profit-taking were behind another downside performance in London's leading stocks yesterday, spoiling what looked likely to be a day of new highs across the marketplace.

Sentiment was not helped by opening weakness on Wall Street.

The decision by the Bank of England's monetary policy committee to leave British interest rates on hold - with no accompanying explanation of the reasons behind its decision - came as no surprise to a stock market which is mostly coming round to the idea that the interest rate-cutting cycle could now have finished.

The setback in the FTSE 100, following on from Wednesday's decline, came as a surprise after Wall Street's overnight record on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the latest burst of takeover stories.

Turnover in equities was a hefty 1.43 billion shares, boosted by the 142 million turnover in Telecom Eireann.