The London market suffered from what is rapidly becoming a bad case of "Chinese meal syndrome" yesterday - as soon as investors absorb one US economic statistic, they become hungry for another. The latest figures from the US - consumer price data for August - proved to be in line with, or better than, expectations. That prompted a rally in London and briefly, the FTSE 100 index managed to get into positive territory gaining 2.4 at 6,118.4. But the FTSE 100 closed at 6,067.7, down 48.3.
For once, the blue-chip stocks outperformed the small and mediumcap shares. The FTSE 250 fell heavily, dropping 94.4 to 5,885.8. Meanwhile, the FTSE SmallCap index fell 32.9 to 2,802.3.
The US interest rate outlook is not the only area of concern for investors. Domestic rate policy is also an issue after last week's rise. Yesterday's British economic data were mixed in their rate implications. Unemployment continued to fall and average earnings growth, on a three-month basis, edged up to 4.6 per cent from 4.4 per cent; but the monthly figures showed a slowing in the rate of wage growth.
Turnover was a robust 1.24 billion shares by the 6 p.m. count, almost equally split between Footsie and non-Footsie stocks.