So the UK market did not manage to end up on the week after all. Some profit taking on Wall Street after an opening rise helped pull down shares in London, and by the close the FTSE 100 was 6.8 points lower at 5869.0. The index closed last Friday at 5901.7.
It did look for a long time today as if, despite all the gyrations of the week, things would end almost exactly where they started on Monday morning. That would have been some achievement, given Monday's panic selling, the £3.7bn rogue trader fraud at SocGen and growing fears of a US recession.
But the bubble was burst as US investors cashed in some of the week's gains, and more rumours of financial problems swirled around. There was talk of a hedge fund possibly running into difficulties, and unsubstantiated speculation of a profit warning from a bank such as Fortis or ING. The market's edginess has clearly not gone away.
Miners ended up mixed after the power problems in South Africa caused production at several sites to be halted. This pushed up the price of gold and platinum, helping Vedanta Resources, Xstrata, Rio Tinto and Kazakhmys gain between 3% and 7%.
But Anglo American fell 5%, Lonmin lost 4% after UBS cut its price target and ferrochrome producer International Ferro dropped 7.25p to 81.75p.
