An early attempt at a rally in London stocks quickly ran out of steam yesterday with all the main indices, apart from the Techmark 100, finishing on a weak note.
Already on the slide around lunchtime, the market's retreat gathered pace as the afternoon wore on, with sentiment on both sides of the Atlantic again dented by worrying US corporate news, which saw Wall Street looking vulnerable again.
The FTSE 100 ended the day with a 40.4 decline at 5,080.2, only the merest margin above the session low.
And there were confidence-sapping losses too across the rest of the market. The FTSE 250 index dropped another 21.4 to 5,814.0, while the FTSE SmallCap dipped another 10.4 to a day's low-point of 2,571.4.
In percentage terms, however, the Techmark 100 was the worst affected of the top indices, losing another 24.97, or 1.7 per cent.
A number of US companies, including Juniper Networks, upset the market, as did the continuing concerns about events in Argentina, which deteriorated again yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down over 50 points as London finished for the day, while the Nasdaq fell further.
Dealers said the London market was slowly but surely winding down for the Christmas holiday, although turnover held up reasonably well. "We're almost there and there are plenty of people happy to see the end of what has been a shocking twelve months. Here's to 2002," said one weary trader. But the market has still to face the hurdle of today's dual expiry of the December FTSE future and index options.
Around the sectors, the banks continued to attract persistent support, despite the ongoing worries about Argentina. Standard Chartered vied for top spot in the 100 index as the now familiar takeover stories made their periodic reappearance.
News of the US regulatory approval of Diageo's purchase of Seagram's wines and spirits business, in tandem with Pernod Ricard, saw Diageo shares strongly supported.
Turnover in equities reached 1.69 billion shares, with telecoms stocks Vodafone, BT, mmO and Cable & Wireless accounting for 346 million shares, or one fifth of market turnover.
