It was a long time coming, 20 months in fact, and some dealers asked if it was worth the wait, as the Bank of England's monetary policy committee unveiled a 25 basis points reduction in domestic interest rates, only for the FTSE 100 index to finish lower on the day.

Although a cut in rates had been widely expected by the market there were a few doubters and that element of uncertainty unsettled the FTSE 100 in early trading.

The news, when it came at noon, was taken calmly by the market, with the FTSE 100 a few points higher immediately before the rates announcement and then gradually picking up as confidence began to return.

But London could not maintain that level of enthusiasm against a background of renewed concerns about the extent of the downturn in the US economy. That nervousness, combined with another big fall in BT, provided enough selling pressure to leave the FTSE 100 with a modest fall on the day.

Commenting on the interest rate cut, Richard Jeffrey, economist at ING Barings Charterhouse Securities, said: `This rate cut is clearly driven by events in the US and is unwarranted when looking at conditions in the domestic economy. And almost certainly it will have to be reversed later in the year`.

The FTSE 100 ended 19.5 off at 6,206.1, having posted a gain of almost 40 points during the early part of the morning. At its worst, just before the end-of-session auction, the index fell to within two points of the psychologically important 6,200 level.

Dealers said the fact the index had held above that level, albeit by a narrow margin, was encouraging, although the market's ability to resist the downside pressures was looking increasingly in question.

One dealer said: "We're still locked in a rather narrow 6,200 to 6,400 range, but with Wall Street coming back to critical support levels it may be that we'll dip back to test 6,000. That will be the real test of this market."

The TMT sectors, which blew hot and [N O]stone cold last year, provided the majority of the losers in the FTSE 100. And as one dealer put it, "the market is hunting down any stocks with US exposure".