The FTSE 100 saw a quiet day today with early optimism lost as the index ended where it started.

At close of play, with traders eyeing the London Tube strike and looking to make a swift exit, the index stood at 4,404.79 – down 0.43 points or 0.01 per cent.

Thomas Cook led the gains up 10.04 per cent, as Germany’s Arcandor, which owns 53 per cent of the travel firm, filed for bankruptcy.

Balfour Beatty was up 4.32 per cent, Home Retail rose 4.13 per cent, Tullow Oil gained 3.96 per cent and Eurasian rose 3.37 per cent.

Insurer Aviva fell 2.82 per cent, Cobham was down 2.41 per cent, Compass dropped 2.31 per cent and Pearson slipped 2.12 per cent.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said: “The summer lull seems to have come early to stock markets with today seeing the FTSE 100 meandering in a tight range, never too far away from where it started the day.

“This lack of volatility is also being mirrored over in the USA with the major American indices also showing little change for the day.”

He added: “Today sees the FTSE set to finish slap bang in the middle of its recent one-month range – it is something of a coin flip to decide where it is going to go next but it seems fair to say that there is some scepticism following the 1,000 point rally we enjoyed since March that there is a lot more upside to come.

“Investors still seem happy to hit the sell button on any rallies to 4500, and until we get more solid proof that companies around the world are managing to ride out the recession better than expected, you can’t really blame them for wanting to take money off the table when markets are just chopping around.”