ANOTHER tense trading session in British equities closed with overall sentiment in London dented but not too severely damaged after the worrying overnight setback on Wall Street, which reacted sharply to the deadlock over the US budget deficit.
The 97 point slide by the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wednesday triggered an instant and sizeable mark down of stocks in London but the level of selling pressure, according to market makers, was never more than light
And with US markets opening in good shape at the outset of trading yesterday, the general feeling in London was that British equities could well make progress at the start of trading this morning, if the Dow maintained its early progress.
At the end of the session, the FTSE 100 index settled 16.6 off at 3654.9, extending the decline in the index over the past three days to 65.7 points.
The FTSE Mid 250 index marginally under performed the premier index, retreating 24.2 to 4015.3.
Increased volatility was accompanied by a useful uptick in the volume of trading throughout the markets. Turnover at 6 p.m. reached a hefty 865.2 million shares, the highest since before Christmas.
Once again Forte, the hotel and restaurants group under siege from Granada, was the heaviest traded, stock with 40 million shares changing hands.
Allied Colloids, the chemicals group, attracted similar turnover after a series of agency crosses, where brokers match buyers and sellers at the same price.
The Dow's downward lurch on Wednesday, which saw the index drop around 100 points for the second time since the US budget deficit wrangle began to cause serious concern to investors ensured a difficult opening throughout European equity markets.
