The profits warnings that have nibbled away at the edges of the London equity market's hard-won return of confidence came with a real rush yesterday, unnerving dealers and investors alike.

Piling on the pressure in London was the recent bad news on the domestic economy which included the severe contraction in output in the UK manufacturing sector that helped trigger Tuesday's 200 point plus fall in the London market.

And a final twist was added by the overnight news from the US where Boeing, the world's biggest aircraft manufacturer, shocked global markets by announcing a warning of a sharp slowdown in earnings and massive job losses.

"Without the Boeing news I think we might have been okay; but that has really begun to worry the institutions who are now having to rethink strategy about the global earnings hit. It's going to be a long haul from here on," said one London trader.

Burdened by the fallout from the Boeing news, casting a shadow over the engineering sector, the London market was under pressure for most of the day, ignoring Wall Street's rally on Tuesday.

By the close of a session characterised by heavy turnover of 1.1 billion shares, much of it said to be associated with tax-related trades, the FTSE 100 index was 30.3 down at 5,507.2.

Earlier, with Wall Street coming to terms with the Boeing news and a big sell-off in Sears Roebuck, which warned of lower than expected earnings, the index dropped through the 5,500 level to record a session-low of 5,489.5.

The market's midcap and smallcap stocks also suffered but dealers said the down side pressure was never overwhelming.