There was more pain for investors in UK stocks yesterday as the hangover from the most recent spate of profits warnings from the US continued to nag away at the market's confidence.
But it was not all bleak news with many of the "old economy" sectors making progress, albeit at the expense of the TMTs (technology, media and telecommunication stocks), which took another dose of punishment. And London closed well above the day's lowest levels.
The main support for London was a strong rally by Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved into positive territory, as it posted a near three-figure rise, having come within five points of registering a three-figure decline earlier in the session.
It was the same story for the Nasdaq Composite, which dipped at the start of trading before rallying.
But earlier in the day, the UK market had been dragged sharply lower by Wednesday's big losses in the US.
And there were more negative influences affecting European markets, the main disappointment being the news that the European Central Bank had decided to leave euro-zone rates on hold. Markets had been hoping that the ECB would shave rates by at least 25 basis points.
That news hit markets hard in mid-session, with the FTSE 100, then well above its session low, quickly back on the defensive.
At the close, the FTSE 100 dropped 25.6 to 5,588.4. At its worst, about an hour after trading commenced, the index was down 94.1 at 5,519.9 and threatening another move below 5,500.
It was the same for the Techmark 100, which suffered from the continuing fallout from the profits warnings issued on Wednesday by Nortel and Palm. The Techmark 100 index fell about 60 points at worst, prior to stabilising and ending 36.94 off at 1,943.22.
The FTSE SmallCap lost 17.2 to 2,871.9, its lowest of the day, weakened by a burst of profits warnings and disappointing results.
The star performance came from the FTSE 250, which consolidated its position above the 6,000 level, moving up another 16.7 to 6,070.6, spearheaded by two resurgent biotech stocks, Cambridge Antibody and Oxford Glycosciences.
