Leading shares in London staged a recovery today - an unconvincing one perhaps, but a recovery none the less.
The gains came despite an early fall on the FTSE 100 following an overnight slump on Wall Street and weakness in Asian markets.
"There were a couple of programme trades that came in when the market was about 30 points lower, and it turned on a sixpence," said one trader.
So the 100 index ended 30 points higher at 6132.2, helped by Wall Street making a positive start, up around 135 points by the time London closed.
But dealers pointed out that trading was still thin, with many market participants still away on holiday.
"It doesn't feel quite right at the moment; it feels as if it could fall further," said one trader. "If the US Federal Reserve cuts rates, that could be seen as a bad move, while there is all that Bush and Iran stuff in the background."
More immediately there are the continuing concerns about how far the US sub-prime problems extend, and which financial institutions will be left carrying the can.
Still, after recent falls, the financials edged back higher today.
Standard Life climbed 6p to 290.5p in belated reaction to a Morgan Stanley upgrade late yesterday. The insurer also unveiled plans to restructure its private equity business.
Barclays - which denied yesterday it had several hundred million dollars of exposure to failed debt vehicles - rose 11p to 600p. But Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclay's rival in the battle to buy Dutch group ABN Amro, was unmoved at 563p.
The biggest gainer in the leading index was Whitbread. The leisure group added 54p to £16.12 after it reported a strong rise in first-half sales and said it would start a planned £300m share buyback programme. But it admitted the current credit market turmoil would delay a planned bond issue, which has been estimated by analysts at between £600m and £800m.
After an uncertain start, most miners shrugged off a fall in copper prices on the back of rising stocks and concerns about global growth. BHP Billiton was 26p better at £13.90; Rio Tinto rose 9p to £32.55; while Antofagasta added 8.5p to 692p after its first half profits rose 8.4%. But Xstrata missed out and slipped 20p to £28.12.
Utility shares such as Yorkshire Water owner Kelda, up 26p to 852p, were wanted for their defensive qualities, but builders were hit by concerns about the state of the housing market. Barratt Development lost 6p to 905p, and Persimmon fell 9p to £11.55.
A drop in US oil stocks sent the crude price higher again, pushing BP 0.5p higher to 542.5p.
Among the mid-caps online gambling group PartyGaming reversed yesterday's falls, adding 5.25p to 28p after better than expected first-half figures. There were also hopes that the company could come to an agreement with the US authorities to remove the threat of retrospective action over bets it previously took from American gamblers.
But insurer Domestic & General dropped 45p to £11.87 after home emergency specialist Homeserve pulled out of takeover talks. Homeserve added 8p to £16.54. ABN Amro issued a buy note on Homeserve, saying: "The current share price looks to be pricing in a negative value for [Homeserve's] international operations, which, given the profitable French business and the expectation that the US breaks even next year ... seems wrong."
Exploration group Soco International fell 54p to £18.99 as Goldman Sachs added the company to its "conviction sell list" as part of a note on the sector. Goldman was neutral on Venture Production, down 6p to 712.5p.
Still with oil and gas, Melrose Resources lost 57.75p to 290.25p after it reported a half-year after-tax loss due to a charge related to unsuccessful drilling in Bulgaria. It also cut its reserves.
Elsewhere Phil Edmonds' mining company Central African slipped 4.25p to 47.75p despite a jump in full-year turnover from £11m to £69.5m. The company launched a formal $1.44bn offer for Canada's Katanga Mining, which it said had "the potential to dramatically enhance our position by building the company into one of the leading producers of copper in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and potentially the world's largest producer of cobalt".
Traders said if the deal went through it would double the size of the company. Even so, some investors are still concerned that it operates in rather unstable areas.
In the tech world LogicaCMG lost 2.75p to 156p, despite profits edging up from £26.8m to £29.2m. The company reported weakness in the UK market, and there was some disappointment there was no news on a permanent chief executive.
Dresdner Kleinwort said: "We believe that the recruitment of a new chief executive (ideally an external candidate) will be the main driver for this stock. In the near term, lacklustre results should be somewhat offset by a relatively low valuation and ongoing speculation of Logica being a potential bid target."
Software group SciSys lost 8.5p to 60.75p after it warned contract delays would mean it would not meet market expectations.
Finally Nestor Healthcare fell 6.75p to 134.5p as it ended takeover talks.