An unhappy start to the session by Wall Street, amid revived concerns about Brazil and its debt burden, brought an abrupt halt to an earlier positive performance by London's equity market.
The US weakness, which saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 80 as trading in London came to a close, meant earlier gains in UK stocks were gradually whittled away to be replaced by some sizeable losses. At the finish of a session that featured heavy trading volumes, the FTSE 100 index was down 51.4 at 6,033.6. Earlier the index had given another good performance, resuming its upward path and racing 55 higher as it looked set to challenge its all-time intra-day and closing highs.
The junior FTSE indices suffered along with the 100. The 250 index closed a net 4.9 easier at 4,977.1, having reached 4,988.9 shortly before US markets opened. And the FTSE SmallCap settled 1.7 down at 2,139.8.
Despite the widespread losses in London, dealers remained reasonably confident about the market's ability to absorb bouts of selling pressure like yesterday.
Turnover in equities was a heavy 1.2 billion shares.
