Footsie down more than 100 points
Concern about Iraq, the economy, corporate profitability and the impact of a late sell-off on Wall Street on Friday hit investors’ fragile confidence in London today.
And by lunchtime the Footsie was down 105.9 points at 3497.8 – 37.5 points off its session low – with just three of the UK’s top 100 stocks making any progress.
Unless a sharp recovery takes place this afternoon the index will close down for an unprecedented eleventh session in a row and take it to a new seven-year low.
Analysts were uncertain about which way the Footsie would go when trading opened this morning but it soon became clear that nerves about the coming week held sway.
UN weapons inspectors will today present the much-anticipated report on their hunt for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction to the Security Council.
And dealers added that tomorrow’s State of the Union address by US President George W Bush could prove a key driver for sentiment.
A sharp fall on Wall Street late on Friday cast a cloud over traders in the City and there were signs of further falls in the US later today.
In London, the Footsie was a sea of red with all the key heavyweight stocks falling sharply and just Dixons, Rentokil and Unilever on the up.
Insurers – which face pressure to meet their all-important solvency ratios amid falling stock markets – fell heavily in the morning session.
Aviva was down 14p at 389p, Legal & General off 1p at 80p, Prudential off 14p at 384p and Royal & Sun Alliance 5.75p lower at 102.5p.
Among the banks, Abbey National was down 21.5p at 401.5p – half its price in July – Barclays fell 12p to 340p and HSBC slid 15p at 643p.
Oil groups also weighed heavily, with BP off 4%, or 13.75p at 355.25p, while Shell was 11p lower at 349.5p.
And pharmaceuticals tumbled with GlaxoSmithKline down 44p at 1043p and AstraZeneca off 79p at 1820p.
In the telecoms sector, mobile phone giant Vodafone fell 3p to 111.75p, mmO2 was a penny lower at 48.75p, and BT dropped 5.5p to 178.75p.
Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever gained after saying that sales in 2002 would be higher than expected.
The Magnum-to-Knorr group rose 1.5p to 535.5p. Of the other climbers, Dixons was up 1.5p to 103p and Rentokil Initial was ahead 3p to 186.5p.
