FTSE 250: 5,775.7 (-43.6); FTSE SmallCap: 2,479.0 (-14.1)London Report: The gloom descended once again on London's equity market yesterday with stock prices falling away across the board, and often sharply, as investors continued to focus on the potential for bad news.
And there was precious little in the way of good news for the dwindling band of optimists to cling to, although Sir Edward George, governor of the Bank of England, took some of the heat out of the interest rate futures market, hinting to a conference organised by Euromoney that market predictions of UK interest rates rises were too aggressive.
Wall Street's return after the President's Day holiday was hardly inspiring for an already hard-pressed UK market, as was the substantial weakness of the Hong Kong and Tokyo markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which dipped back below 10,000 last Friday, came under renewed downside pressure and posted a 90-point decline as London closed for the session.
There was a definite "old economy/new economy" influence affecting London with the defensive favourites - utilities, food and general retailers - providing some much-needed help to the FTSE 100.
On the sell side, however, came two of the heavyweight sectors, banks and telecommunications, which proved a considerable drag on the FTSE 100 index.
Insurance stocks were unsettled by the latest profit warning from Fortis, the Dutch financial services group.
Dealers said worries about accounting practices continued to cast a shadow over market sentiment, as did the fear that there could be more rights issues in the pipeline. "We're suffering from low volumes and a general lack of confidence," said one trader. "The only comfort is that the FTSE 100 has bounced every time it has got near to the 5,000 level since recovering from the events of September 11th." He warned that the long list of FTSE 350 companies reporting this week and next had the capacity to cause upsets.
After a day-long struggle to retain the 5,100 level, the FTSE 100 finally succumbed to the downside pressure, finishing below that number for the first time for about two weeks, and closing a net 61.8 off at 5,092.5, after a session low of 5,089.0.
