London's sequence of record highs was brought to an abrupt halt yesterday by growing worries about the possibility of another rise in British interest rates in the short term and by Wall Street's overnight decline. Adding to the pressures on sentiment in London were widespread falls among other European stock markets as the euro continued to struggle, and reports of some heavy programme trading business, mostly weighted on the sell-side.

The renewed interest rate worries sprang from the publication of the Nationwide building society's November survey of British house prices, which showed them rising at 13.3 per cent over the past 12 months.

London came under pressure from the outset as profit-takers moved in quickly after Wall Street's modest closing losses on Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 40 points and the recently buoyant Nasdaq finished 26 off. The FTSE 100 finished 95.1 down at 6,597.2.

Marketmakers said much of the fall in the FTSE 100 was the direct responsibility of the telecoms arena, where Cable & Wireless and BT were notable losers along with many of the banks.