A typical holiday-blighted day in the stock market saw the FTSE 100 end sharply lower after a record US monthly trade deficit triggered an early three-figure sell-off on Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average.

The Dow was under pressure from the opening and took London with it, although dealers insisted that actual selling of British stocks, apart from a hefty mid-session programme trade, was mostly small-scale.

Marketmarkers were said to be unwilling to take on large lines of stock so close to the US interest rate-setting meeting next Tuesday.

While the banks and pharmaceuticals provided support for the Footsie, the oil majors attracted hefty selling after their recent strong oil price rise-induced runs, and were said to have accounted for about a fifth of the index's losses.

The FTSE 100, which at its worst just managed to escape a three-figure decline, settled 83.8 lower at 6,118.0.