News that the Bank of England's monetary policy committee had decided to leave domestic interest rates on hold made absolutely no impression on a market still suffering from trends overseas.
The leaders moved decisively lower, having begun the day on the brink of the 6,000 level for the FTSE 100. The second-liners, represented by the FTSE Mid-250, finally ran out of steam, having hit record closing and intra-day highs all week.
It was left to the FTSE SmallCap index to provide investors with what little comfort was available. The index pushed on again to fresh peaks in the wake of yet more takeover action.
No less than 11 bids, approaches or mergers involving SmallCap constituents have been announced this week, with Spargo Consultants the latest to attract the attentions of a potential buyer.
The SmallCap index moved confidently ahead for the seventh straight session, hitting a record closing and intra-day high of 2,685.9, up 9.8. Over those seven sessions, the index has risen 57.4 or 2.2 per cent.
Problems for the front-line stocks stemmed from another bout of weakness on Wall Street overnight, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 92 points, despite confirmation of the Chrysler/Daimler-Benz merger talks.
The Dow's weakness reflected the continuing uncertainty about US interest rates. The Federal Reserve's open market committee meets on May 19th to decide whether to raise rates. Today's non-farm payroll report is one of the key indicators used by the FOMC. And there was no respite for the US market at the opening yesterday when the Dow fell again.
Additional pressure was exerted on European markets, London included, by the widespread falls across Asian markets, unsettled by worries about economic problems and alarming reports of riots and looting in Indonesia.
Apart from the international concerns, most of the economic and corporate news in London was on the positive side. The Confederation of British Industry's April survey of distributive trades showed high street sales up modestly.
Sterling, meanwhile, slipped back, with the Bank of England's exchange rate index finishing down 1.0 at 103.4, encouraging the big engineering and exporting groups, which figured prominently among the best performers.
Royal Bank of Scotland outstripped the rest of the leaders, a lone firm spot in an otherwise still depressed banking arena, after well-received interims.
News of the mega-merger between Chrysler of the US and Germany's Daimler-Benz sent a ripple of expectation of further consolidation through the markets, but failed to lift share prices.
Even evidence of an increase in retail sales from the Confederation of British Industry failed to galvanise the market.
Predictably the Far East woes hit Asia-linked stocks the hardest.
Cable & Wireless fell 27p to 641p, HSBC dipped 56p to £17.74 and Standard Chartered fell 62p to 867p.
A big improvement in Royal Bank of Scotland's half-year results sent its shares climbing 54 1/2p to 988p.
NatWest inched up 2p to £12.18 but Lloyds TSB lost 61 /2p to 893p and Barclays slipped 20p to £17.58.
British Aerospace, tipped to be involved in future Daimler-inspired consolidation of the defence sector, closed 1/2p up at 533p.
Aero engine maker Rolls-Royce added 10 1/2p to 298p after it took full control of Aircraft Finance and Trading from Fokker.
Speculation that a future link up between PowerGen and US group Houston Industries was unlikely depressed the British company's shares 4p to 801p.
Oil group Royal Dutch Shell was 5p up at 454p in spite of a fall in profits on the back of the worldwide fall in oil prices.
