London shares took it on the chin again yesterday as another blast of selling pressure, mostly in the recently high-flying high-technology and telecoms sectors, dragged all the main FTSE indices down sharply.
Not even a buoyant opening by Wall Street's premier measure, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, could head off another three-figure decline in Britain's benchmark index, the FTSE 100.
Footsie dropped 130.0 or 1.95 per cent to 6,535.9, extending the decline over the past two session to 394.3, or 5.7 per cent. London's market-makers pointed to some nasty losses in US hi-techs, which dragged down the Nasdaq Composite.
More worrying for traders, who had expected the market to show some resilience after Tuesday's record points fall in the Footsie, was the broad spread of share price weakness. The FTSE 250 index posted a 68.1 decline at 6,364.0. The SmallCap, which shrugged off the record points fall in the FTSE 100 on Tuesday, was under pressure from the outset yesterday, sliding 55.0 to 3,043.4 at its worst during early trading, and remained under the cosh all day, finishing 46.8 lower at 3,051.6.
