London shares had a subdued start today as a slide on Wall Street last night weighed on sentiment.
After an hour of trading the FTSE 100 Index was up just 2.5 points at 5199.7, following an initial 26-point slide.
The lacklustre opening came in a morning of few blue-chip announcements and in the wake of further losses on Wall Street, where both the Dow Jones and Nasdaq closed lower.
US markets were hit by further worries about possible terrorist attacks, and news that Merrill Lynch had agreed to pay a $100m fine to settle allegations it had misled investors.
The Nasdaq losses hit tech and telecom firms, with computer services group Logica off 5.5p at 239p and chip designer ARM down 2p at 215p.
Telecoms groups trading lower were Cable & Wireless, off 5p at 199p, mmO2 down a penny at 45p and BT 2.5p lower at 275p.
Oil stocks were also dragging on trading after a fall in the oil price. Shell fell 4.5p to 526.5p while BP was off 7p at 589p.
But among shares bucking the trend was music group EMI, up 5p at 276p to reverse some of yesterday’s 19p fall in the wake of poor results.
Among smaller stocks, travel groups slumped after MyTravel, the former Airtours, warned it was not confident of recouping first quarter losses caused by 11 September.
The group said it was being hit by families postponing booking their holidays.
Shares slumped 17%, off 38.5p to 187p. Rival First Choice slid 11%, down 13p at 105p.
EGi News 22/05/02
