London shares opened mixed in light trading on Tuesday after a recovery on Wall Street on Monday and good corporate earnings figures overcame institutional reluctance to buy at current prices..

In the first hour, the FTSE-100 Index was down 20 points to 5,817.9.

April's consumer credit figures came in below expectations at £866m, compared to £1.4bn in March and expectations of £1bn, easing fears of an interest rate rise when the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee meets later this week.

Among the utilities reporting, National Grid was up 13p to £3.85 after reporting better than expected results and confirming it was interested in buying a US utility.

Thames Water was down on international worries as the company failed to reassure investors despite news that its project in Indonesia to supply water to Jakarta may be resumed.

Vodaphone, which will report results later this session, was up 14.5p to £7.02p on expectations of robust profit growth as the mobile phone business continues to expand.

Zeneca, whose price has been rising on bid speculation, fell back 37p to £25.08 following the announcement of the merger between American Home Products and Monsanto in the US last night.

Among smaller companies, Filofax was down 9% on news that discussions on a possible major alliance have been terminated.

In the weak market, major falls a few stocks like engineering group Siebe helped propel the FTSE's drop. They were off nearly £1 to £14.07 after lower than expected profits which were hit by the high pound.

The lacklustre nature of the market was confirmed by Peter Caulkett of Teather and Greenwood who said, "A number of institutions are simply sitting back and viewing events, rather than trading."