Another negative day left the FTSE 100 index languishing near the bottom of its long-term 6,000-6,600 trading range.

Once again, Vodafone played its part in dragging down the blue chip benchmark. Monday's decline in the mobile telecoms stock, the UK's largest, had been prompted by the announcement of a bond issue from Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate, that was convertible into Vodafone shares.

This time round, it was a sales report from Nokia, the mobile telephone manufacturer, that did the damage.

While Nokia's sales figure for 2000 of 128 million handsets represented a 64 per cent gain on 1999, it was not enough to satisfy investors.

Nokia shares plunged and the news upset technology equipment and telecom shares across Europe.

In early trading, it had looked as if the FTSE 100 might stage a rally. Wall Street had cut its losses by the Monday close and Footsie duly rose 46.3 to 6,195.9 after a quarter of an hour of trading.

But the Nokia news, which broke in late-morning, sent European markets into reverse. The FTSE hit its low for the day 6,066.4, down 83.2 just after noon.

Wall Street had a solid start and that reduced the scale of FTSE losses. Nevertheless, the blue chip benchmark closed 61.5 points lower at 6,088.1.

In the past, investors have been willing to step in when Footsie has flirted with the 6,000 level.

A rate cut from the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, which meets today and tomorrow, would undoubtedly be the spark for a rally, although few economists are expecting such a move.

The Bank of England is expected to be far more cautious than the Federal Reserve in cutting rates, given that the recessionary signals are much stronger across the Atlantic.

The latest reports from the UK corporate sector indicated that consumer demand is still fairly robust, with pubs group J D Wetherspoon and bar and disco operator Luminar reporting strong Christmas trade.