Further market turmoil is being forecast in the coming months with some commentators suggesting that both technology and non-tech stocks are at risk, with the US technology sectors set to suffer most.

Bloxham Stockbrokers says a broad-based sell-off in global equity markets is about to begin as the Federal Reserve continues the monetary squeeze. The broker says monetary and economic conditions in the non-US markets will not deteriorate significantly and as such it does not anticipate a large and sustained decline in the non-tech sectors outside of the US.

Standard Life Investment Managers, says the uncertainty in the markets is set to continue for some time yet. It notes that technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) companies have suffered more than most over the past month on mounting interest rate fears.

US economic data, including NAPM housing and employment data all seemed to suggest that Federal Reserve chairman, Mr Alan Greenspan's medicine of higher interest rates had started to cure the patient of its inflationary sickness.

Investors were not expecting this and jumped at the chance to buy back into TMT, convinced at least for now that they had been unduly worried about inflation and rates. But this "kicker" to stock markets could in itself be bad news Standard Life warns.