The three-day rally in London's benchmark index, the FTSE 100, ground to a halt yesterday, with the market alarmed by the latest bout of weakness in TMT (telecoms, media and technology) stocks and another dose of the jitters on Wall Street when that market opened.

Adding to the concerns about the TMTs was a rumour that another big placing of Vodafone shares, owned by Hutchison Whampoa and valued at £3.5£4 billion sterling, was on the cards. That news had a negative impact on a Vodafone share price already suffering from the decline in the market, along with many of the market's biggest and most influential stocks. The fall in Vodafone shares was worth more than 36 FTSE 100 points. Vodafone dropped more than 5 per cent, and closed only pennies away from its lowest level of the year.

At the finish of what was another disappointing trading session in London, in both performance and turnover terms, the FTSE 100 plummeted back through the 6,300 level closing a net 124.9, or 2 per cent, down at 6,249.8, having fallen 133.2 at its worst point of the day.

The make-up of the Techmark 100 ensured that index moved back into the line of fire, after a period of respite that lasted precisely one day. It was easily the worst of the main market indices, losing another 144.3, or 5.1 per cent. It has now fallen almost 54 per cent from its high point of 5,743 in March. Before yesterday, the Techmark had fallen for seven consecutive trading sessions as the market took fright at a series of poor results and profit warnings from many of the leading US tech and telecom companies.

The other indices were similarly infected by the selling pressure hitting the techs. But there were two horror stories in the FTSE 250 which blew a big hole in the index and caused it to settle 72.4 lower at 6,514.8. Shares in Torotrak plunged more than 60 per cent, after losing a contract with Toyota, the Japanese motor car manufacturer. And SSL, the merged Seton Scholl Healthcare/London International groups, plummeted more than 40 per cent after revealing heavier-than-expected restructuring costs.