Investors in UK shares saw values fall again this week as the FTSE100 index continued its slide to end at 5665.7, 57.3 points lower than last Friday’s close. Despite higher volumes traded on Friday than recently, nearly 2 billion shares, traders complained that generally they could see a lack of any urgency to buy. "People haven’t got their hearts in this market," said one. David McBain, equity strategist at Deutsche Bank UK said, "The market's quietly shuffled out of this week going nowhere really. The general tone remains pretty downbeat for equity markets." The comments came as the FTSE100 managed to rise from its lowest point on Friday, to finish 24.3 points up for the day. Few analysts expect much change in the near future, with volatility traditionally muted at this time of year and volumes next week expected to be similar to the week just finished.

It appears that many traders were absent from the City for much of the week. The reason, incredibly for those not familiar with the workings of the stock markets, appears to be horse racing at Royal Ascot. I just hope they wore suitable hats. Next week it seems trading rooms will also be rather empty, with traders traditionally attending the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Some of the largest falls for the week were in the telecom sector, with Vodafone hitting a two-year low at 150.5, although recovering just a little to close at 153. Cable & Wireless also lost 2% on Friday, and COLT Telecom finished down 3.1% at 470 after bouncing back from a low of 421. The sector was down 15% relative to the market as a whole in the last month, and many traders are expecting fresh falls.

Investors and traders will be watching the U.S. next week for the results of the Federal Reserve’s meeting which is widely expected to announce a further cut in interest rates. While analysts are confident that a cut of 0.5% or even just 0.25% would produce a market rally, many are also looking for indicators that the interest rate cuts are having any real effect on the state of the economy.

As the re-shuffled government politicians start to settle into their various new jobs, it emerges that New Labour may have already managed to score a couple of "own goals" in Tony Blair’s choice of ministers. Firstly, it was revealed last weekend in a live national radio interview that Sports Minister Richard Caborn’s knowledge of sporting matters was almost non-existent. Among others in the stream of questions from the persistent interviewer, he was unable to name the British Lions captain or the England cricket coach. Supporters of Mr Caborn point out that although it may be desirable for a Sports Minister to know such things, not being able to name individuals was hardly a disqualification for the job.
More serious for many was the revelation that the new Transport Minister Stephen Byers does not possess a driving licence and has never learned to drive. While many are asking how he can possibly do his job without a first-hand understanding of roads and driver’s needs and the Association of British Drivers said it was "symbolic of the Government's anti-car stance", some driving organisations were a little more charitable towards Mr Byers. "It certainly would be very useful to look at most of these issues through the eyes of a driver," said Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA as diplomatically as possible. A spokesman for the Freight Transport Association agreed that it would "obviously be beneficial" if the "top transport minister" had a licence, but added, "We do not, however, expect the Defence Minister to be able to drive a tank or fighter aircraft." Now there’s a thought.
A non-driving Transport Minister is not a first for New Labour. The Labour Minister in 1965, Barbara Castle, was also unable to drive and listed her recreations in Who’s Who as "poetry and walking." I don’t see Mr Byers as a poet, somehow. But then I could be wrong.
Conservative transport spokesman Bernard Jenkin took great delight in pointing out that he held both a car licence and an HGV1 licence. HGV1? I’m sure there’s a great demand for HGV1 drivers among politicians, isn’t there?

Finally for this week, inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk were panicking about the safety of their pets and small children following the escape of a three-year-old vulture called "Foster" from Banham zoo at Diss, Norfolk on Monday. However, the huge bird with an eight-foot wingspan is not, according to falconers at the zoo, at all dangerous. He remains free at the time of writing this, and has flown some considerable distance from where he originally decided to take to the air during a falconry display at the zoo. Attempts to entice him back with food have so far failed, and "Foster" seemed unimpressed when the falconers brought along another vulture called "Vomit" in the hope "Foster" would come down and join it. With a name like that, would you come back? "Foster’s" travels so far have covered more than 120 miles.