While global markets were looking for pointers as to how the wind was blowing in terms of market sentiment ahead of today's crucial meeting of the US Federal Reserve's open market committee (FOMC), London's stock market staged an alarming last-gasp dive yesterday.
The FTSE 100 index plunged massively during the post-market auction process, which sees all overhanging trades unwound in what is always a frantic five to ten minutes, with the market fizzing and buzzing with stories.
These ranged from a record-breaking sized sell programme, to a simultaneous expiry, or activity, in individually tailored options, known as OTCs, heavy activity linked to the changes being made to MSCI indices to accommodate a shift to free float and, as always when the market moves extremely violently, to some incorrectly input trades.
The FTSE 100 index was under pressure all day, as the market continued to reflect the growing uncertainty about the chances of another substantial cut in US interest rates after today's FOMC meeting.
Moving into the auction, the index was down around 72 points and not under any undue selling pressure. Wall Street was reasonably stable with the Dow Jones Industrial Average little changed and the Nasdaq a shade easier.
But after the auction took place, the index flashed up on trading screens with a massive 206.3, or 3.5 per cent decline, to 5,690.5, with the market's superstocks - the highly liquid internationally traded stocks such as Vodafone, BT, GlaxoSmithKline, BP Amoco and Shell - leading the retreat with a large number of big trades going through the ticker.
The drama in the top 100 stocks did not filter through to the rest of the market, with the FTSE 250 finishing 27.3 off at 6,477.6. The FTSE SmallCap, seemingly aloof to the overall weakness, ended with a 2,3 gain at 3,094.4. The Techmark 100, burdened by marked weakness across the board in the TMT stocks, lost 44.51 at 1,962.15.
Prior to the last-minute activity, the market was a bit like the weather in London: gloomy and overcast with the worry that things could get worse. Turnover in equities was 1.63 billion shares.
