London's equity market delivered a solid, if not spectacular, performance yesterday, with the FTSE 100 taking one of its now familiar runs at the 6,000 level, but once again just failing to take the final step at its best, before falling away again.

That failure to penetrate 6,000 was in sharp contrast to the stunning overnight performance of Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial showed no such respect for the 11,000 level that has proved so difficult to recapture since losing it last September.

The Dow did not just push through 11,000, it simply flew through, posting a whopping 342-point gain more than 3 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite delivered an even more impressive gain, climbing more than 80 points, or almost 4 per cent.

The Dow extended its advance yesterday, easily overcoming an early 33-point slide and posting another 90 point gain before running back and a 20-point gain as London closed.

The FTSE 100, which has swung around violently in the past few sessions eventually finished the session only 20.5 higher at 5,904.5, having at one point looked more than likely to stage a strong challenge to the 6,000 level in the wake of the Dow's charge through 11,000.

But at the 5,968.4 level, up 84.4, the index simply stuttered and then embarked on a not unfamiliar retreat which took it all the way back to its closing level, obviously exhausted by the overall lack of support from domestic institutions.

In a twist to the recent trend in the market, the FTSE 250 and FTSE SmallCap, which have not followed the 100 index in its sharp gyrations in both directions, gave confident performances.

Dealers in London said the rather disappointing performance by the 100 index was partly a reflection of the market's distrust of the startling upsurge on Wall Street on Wednesday and of the much higher than expected increase in retail sales in April.

Sales jumped 0.6 per cent, double the 0.3 per cent consensus forecast. That number were being interpreted by the market as lessening the chances of another cut in UK interest rates after the next meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, scheduled for June 5th.