It was another distinctly unhappy day for London's equity market yesterday with all the main FTSE indices on the retreat and the FTSE 100 index plunging back below the 6,200 level.
The latest slide, which spread across the market, came as the embattled and beleaguered tech stocks took a fresh pasting from fund managers now fast regretting their love affair with the sector. There was little love left for the sectors yesterday, according to market-makers and salesmen struggling to tempt buyers back into the market.
At the finish of a rather bleak session, the FTSE 100 was left nursing yet another bruising loss, retreating 84.9 more to 6,214.9 its lowest point for around six weeks.
The increasingly bedraggled Techmark 100 was hit by a series of poor performances among its constituents.
The Techmark index closed another 119.5 off at 2,538.11, for a two-day decline of 263.87, 9.5 per cent.
The other FTSE indices suffered nasty falls, triggered partly by weakness in tech and related stocks but also by the continued stream of profits warnings which have spread right across the board.
The 250 ran back another 35.2 to 6,479.6, while the SmallCap index lost another 34.9 to 3,229.8. If Tuesday was a bad day for profit warnings, then yesterday was grim indeed, especially for the smallcaps where there was an extensive list of casualties, including Intelligent Environments, Pharmagene, BNB Resources, AFA Systems and Friendly Hotels.
