Plummeting technology and telecom stocks hammered Britain's FTSE 100 today as the latest batch of gloomy US profit announcements sent the blue chip index to its third lowest close of the year so far.
"It's looking pretty unpleasant," said Mr Peter Seabrook, head of equities at Societe Generale Asset Management. "Things will level out at some stage, but at the moment people don't have the guts to put money into the market."
Gloomy statements cast a pall over the rest of the US first-quarter earnings season and revived worries of possible further profit warnings to come. The FTSE-100 ended down 155.4 points or 2.8 per cent at 5,463.1 points.
Some £36 billion sterling ($51.30 billion) was wiped off the value of British blue chips as the FTSE 100 suffered its third biggest points loss of the year and headed back towards a 29-month closing low of 5,314.8 set late last month.
Decliners were in a four-to-one majority.
Wall Street lost ground from the outset, helping undermine shares in Europe. The Dow Jones blue chip average was down some 240 points or 2.5 per cent at London's close, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite lost 99 points or 5.6 percent.