Monday's three-figure gain wiped out as pressure grows

The pressure on London's equity market intensified yesterday, driving the main indices lower and wiping out all of Monday's three-figure rally in the FTSE 100.

FTSE 250: 5,626.0 (-85.7); FTSE SmallCap: 2,397.4 (-30.6)

The latest slide came after another determined sell-off in what remains of the FTSE 100's technology stock constituents and renewed weakness in the telecoms and media areas. For good measure, the oils turned tail, pharmaceuticals remained out of favour and the fear of substantial problems regarding solvency margins continued to haunt the insurance stocks.

Capping what was a generally dismal day for equities was an apparent bear raid on Scottish Power, whose shares plunged more than 10 per cent in the last 30 minutes of the session, before edging off the bottom, as the market reacted to bearish talk concerning accounting procedures at its Pacificorp subsidiary in the US. Shortly after the market closed, Scottish Power said it knew of no reason for the fall.

At the close the FTSE 100 index was down 49.6, or 1 per cent, at 4,652.4, having been as low as 4,616.7, down 85.3 at its worst of the day. The pain spread right across the board too, the 250 index slipping 85.7, or 1.5 per cent, to 5,626.0, the SmallCap 30.6, or 1.3 per cent, to 2,397.4 and the Techmark 100 17.32, or 1.9 per cent, to 879.80.

The catalyst for the wholesale retreat of the TMTs was another flurry of grim news from the US overnight where Advanced Micro Devices and Apple Computer issued profits warnings after Wall Street had closed for the session. US markets came under fire at the start of trading on Wall Street yesterday but later rallied.

"If you're looking for good news you've come to the wrong place," groaned one trader. "The mood in the stock market is as bad as I can remember and there doesn't seem to be much light at the end of a tunnel that is getting longer and longer," he said.

An otherwise quiet day for economic news brought the minutes of the June 5th-6th meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, which showed that the committee voted seven to one to leave interest rates on hold.

Turnover in equities was 2.7 billion shares.