Britain's leading shares rebounded from sharp losses today to end down slightly as investors shook off early worries about the impact of U.S.-led military strikes in Afghanistan.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed down 3.3 points at 5,032.7, edging back from Friday's threeweek high. A more resilient than expected performance on Wall Street aided a recovery in the UK index from a low for the day 4,902.7.
Transport shares came under pressure on news that railway infrastructure operator Railtrack had gone into administration, with its shares suspended. Go-Ahead fell 10.2 percent and FirstGroup shed 6.5 per cent.
Analysts said the market shrugged off concerns about the start of military action in Afghanistan, which is accused of harbouring Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
"I don't think there is a huge amount of news content in the strikes. The news would be if they stirred up a major hornets' nest of political controversy or if there was an unacceptable amount of damage," said Andrew Bell, European equity strategist at Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite.
He said the focus was on the economic background and the corporate earnings outlook: "If people felt the earnings picture for the economy was recovering, they wouldn't regard the current military tension as a reason to sell the market."
The downward pressure was provided by banks, which knocked 18 points off the main index. Royal Bank of Scotland fell 2.8 percent. Abbey National lost 5.2 percent after it revealed the surprise ousting of its corporate banking head, increasing concerns about the division's performance.
Telecom stocks made a 14-point positive contribution to the FTSE, largely due to a 2.9 percent rally for Vodafone, which ended at 160-1/2p.
Invensys surged to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board, rallying 23 per cent to 54-1/4p. The engineering firm reassured investors, saying its first-half operating profits were in line with a profit warning it gave in July.
FTSE 100 losers outnumbered gainers by two to one and market volume was a modest 1.5 billion shares. By the 1530 GMT London close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down seven points and the Nasdaq Composite was 11 points higher.