Footsie on one of its roughest six-month rides ever

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Its analysis shows the Footsie has stormed through 6000 three times since the start of this year, only to fall back promptly, indicating the belief that breaching such levels is psychologically important has no bearing on the real life of the City.

"There are no two ways about it, we are in a bear market," said advfn chief executive Clem Chambers.

"However, this does not mean that stocks and indices go down in a straight line. In markets such as these, where the underlying trend is down, strong rallies are commonplace. But the day-to-day weakness overcomes moments of strength overall.

"Breaking back up through psychological barriers such as 6000 unfortunately does not mean the good times are back. This is bad news for [long-term] investors but can be profitable for traders."

The stats reveal the FTSE 100 opened at 6450 in 2008, but amid retail gloom and the effects of the credit crunch had slumped to 5338 by 22 January. That compares with a peak of 6751 on 15 October. Over the same period, the price of gold has risen 37% and other commodities such as oil show very strong gains.

Recent analysis by the Evening Standard revealed the heavily oil and commodities-weighted FTSE 100 has fallen far less than other indices.