London shares were slow to react to the festive boost from Wall Street as the few dealers who straggled in to work for the half day saw practically no corporate announcements.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 157.57 points to 9202.03 last night, just 1.8% shy of its all time closing high.

The FTSE 100 Index of leading shares dropped 10 points to 5899 in very light early trading as dealers' minds turned to the Christmas break.

Reports showed that the telecoms industry has had the best year of any sector on the stock market but Vodafone and Colt Telecom had failed to pick up on the news.

Shares in Colt dropped 12.5p to 935p, while Vodafone fell 13p to 980p.

Goldsmiths, the jeweller rose 5p to 169p after reports that chairman Jurek Piasecki was tipped to be putting together a management buyout.

Property group Caledonian Trust reported that trading was "very satisfactory".

Shares jumped 5p to 45p. Eyecare Products gained 2.5p to 14.5p - a 21% jump - after dealers focused on last night's announcement that it was being taken off the market in a takeover by sportswear group Kappa.

Elsewhere, spring-making minnow Turnpyke Group ditched 0.5p to 3.5p after announcing trading was difficult.