The recent extreme volatility in London's equity market gave way to a slightly more sedate performance for much of yesterday although sentiment was looking murkier by the close, when US markets began to slide.
While all but one of the main FTSE indices finished the session in negative territory, dealers said selling pressure in London was never substantial.
The FTSE 100 fell below the 6,300 level not long before the close. After the auction's frantic five minutes the FTSE 100 emerged a fraction above the 6,300 level to finish a net 65.5 off at 6,302.3.
Once again it was the technology and telecom sectors that proved the undoing of the FTSE 100 index, with Wednesday's big sell off in the tech stocks on Wall Street triggering a similar trend in London.
The Nasdaq Composite fell more than 200 points before finishing the overnight session 190 lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial gave up 90 points, both burdened by the after-effects of the negative news from Nortel Networks and worries of more bad news to come from the tech areas.
Wall Street caused further concern with the Dow swinging from an early positive showing when it moved up almost 70 points to a negative reading, despite broadly encouraging economic data which showed the employment cost index up 0.9 per cent during the third quarter. That number was a shade less than the consensus of 1 per cent.
The employment cost index is regarded as one of the most important pieces of economic data and is carefully scrutinised by the US Federal Reserve.
While Wall Street is currently focused on the November 7th Presidential election it is also concerned about the next meeting of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate setting open market committee scheduled for November 15th.
Wall Street's mid-session slide came as US markets reflected unease about the latest uptick in crude oil prices which moved ahead as Iraq threatened to halt oil sales, and ahead of the latest batch of corporate results.
Disappointing earnings news has been largely behind the recent big falls in the Nasdaq.
It came as no surprise that the TMTs (technology, media and telecom stocks) led the retreat in London, accounting for around three quarters of the worst performers in the FTSE 100 index and more than half of the underperformers in the FTSE 250.
