Wall Street's big gain on Thursday and a rally in Hong Kong brought a halt to the sequence of weak performances from London's equity market.

Over the previous three sessions, the FTSE 100 index had fallen 95.8, or 2 per cent, alarmed by the continued turbulence in Far Eastern stock markets, which some analysts expect to prompt a spate of earnings downgrades across British stocks.

But the extent of Wall Street's gains - the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped almost 150 points overnight before settling for an 86-point rise - took many by surprise and brought instant relief to a British market looking thoroughly jaded in midweek. An early burst of strength was attributed to aggressive buying of the Footsie future by Goldman Sachs, which quickly spilled over into the cash market.

Both markets came off their best levels as the London session drew to a close, however. At the close of a day during which turnover reached a more encouraging 750 million shares, the FTSE 100 index settled 30.8 higher at 4,741.8, having briefly re-crossed the 4,800 level, and posted a 90.3 gain at its session high. The index eased 22.5 over the week.

The FTSE Mid-250 also made good progress yesterday, with a 23.2 rise at 4,586.5, although it remained 52.0 weaker over the five-day period. The FTSE SmallCap lagged, however, closing the day 2.0 down at 2,286.6, extending the fall on the week to 31.68 points, or 1.4 per cent.