Three days' worth of hard won gains in the FTSE 100 were wiped out yesterday as a sequence of bearish news hitting the telecoms sector.
Technology stocks also took some serious punishment, in what some weary traders feared could be a re-run of the sell-off that demolished sentiment in those sectors for much of last year.
For the rest of the market, however, it was a much more sedate session. Wall Street provided no nasty shocks overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average easing a mere eight points and the Nasdaq managing a 21-point gain. Figures from Cisco, the network equipment giant, which fell short of forecasts and warned of flat sales over the next two quarters, came after US markets closed.
The market remained convinced that the Bank of England's monetary policy committee will announce at lunchtime today a 25 basis points cut in domestic interest rates, after its two-day deliberations.
The FTSE 100 index finished a tense session a net 67.8 lower at 6,225.6, having slipped below the 6,200 level at one stage, when a three-figure decline looked to be on the cards.
The other indices had to endure some pain, with the FTSE 250, sustained by some stock specific stories, closing only 9.6 easier at 6,763.3. Manchester United was a feature, benefiting from a marketing deal with the New York Yankees. The FTSE SmallCap index closed 0.4 down at 3,320.3.
The main casualty among the indices was the Techmark 100, which, predictably, took a real hammering from the Cisco news and finished 83.72 off at 2,635.38.
Wall Street added to the pressure on the technology stocks with the Nasdaq Composite posting an 80 point loss although the Dow was pushing up modestly as the UK market closed.
