LONDON -- The British stock market could continue its recent winning streak next week in quiet holiday trading, but the longer-term outlook is less favorable, analysts said.

The FTSE 100 index of leading shares ended Friday's session at 4,389.8 points, up 59.8 points, or 1.4 percent, over the week. That marked the fourth week in a row the index has advanced.

The London market is shut on Monday for a public holiday.

In the past month the index has risen by almost 10 percent, although that still leaves it nursing a hefty 15 percent loss since the start of the year.

Despite the market's return to form, analysts were reluctant to conclude stocks had now turned a corner, with many suggesting that it was no more than a lull in the downtrend of the past two and a half years.

"We're talking about a two- or three-week window of further rallies ... but after that I think the short-sellers are going to be back," said Nomura strategist Anais Faraj.

Faraj said driving the push lower would be weakening economic growth which had already forced analysts to slash their earnings forecasts for leading companies.

"For 2002 FTSE 100 earnings forecasts have been slashed by around 80 percent in the last six weeks. That's pretty bearish for the markets," Faraj said.

Henk Potts, Equity strategist at Barclays private clients, is pencilling in a trading range for the index this year of between 4,000 and 4,600, and is forecasting it could end the year at the bottom end of that range.

"A prolonged rally would be difficult to achieve given the current economic climate and corporate profitability," he said.

And Alex Scott, analyst at Seven Investment Management was also cautious.

"I would tend to think (the rally) is not sustainable. It could go on a little while but the concern has got to be that the economic fundamentals are not there to justify it.

Looking ahead to next week's events, Faraj said attention would be on a series of key economic releases in Germany and the United States, particularly reasearch institute IFO's survey of German business confidence, and the U.S. Conference Board's latest survey of U.S. consumers.

Household products group Reckitt Benckiser and leisure group Hilton, were the only leading British companies slated to deliver figures in the coming week.

Both are scheduled to release first-quarter results, AFP reported.