Further £30bn wiped off stocks

by James Mclean London shares suffered another sharp sell-off today as renewed concerns about the global economy's outlook saw investors wipe another £30 billion from the value of the country's leading 100 companies.

Another fall on America's hi-tech Nasdaq market overnight once again put London's leading stocks in the firing line, and saw the FTSE 100 wipe out all of yesterday's late gains to sink another 134.8 points to 5594.4.

Technology and telecommunication shares, hit by waves of selling in the past few weeks, again bore the brunt of the falls with popular shares such as British Telecom and Cable & Wireless falling to three-year lows.

Only 14 of the 100 shares in the main index posted gains, while today's falls bring losses for the week to more than 300 points.

The market has now lost 10 per cent so far this year, and is more than 600 points off its high for the year that it hit six weeks ago at 6334.50.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 16, 2001