A slide on Wall Street last night hit the London market today, as traders continued to worry about the fallout from the WorldCom scandal.
After an hour’s dealing the FTSE 100 Index was down 64.1 points to 4621.7, and reversing yesterday’s modest bounce.
Sentiment was hit by a 133-point slide on the Dow Jones yesterday. The index gave up its session gains and plunged lower in the last hour of dealing after WorldCom said it would default on billions worth of debt.
The tech-dominated Nasdaq also slid lower, hitting tech and telecoms stocks in London this morning.
Mobile group mmO2 fell 1p to 42p, Vodafone was off 1p at 90p and software group Sage slid 3p to 159p.
Pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca slid 4% on worries sales of its Zestril product would come under pressure after a decision in the US to allow two rival firms to make versions of the drug.
Shares in the group fell 95p to £25.85.
Insurance group Prudential was another heavy faller, off 5% or 30p to 571p, after suffering a downgrade by Morgan Stanley.
And among the smaller stocks, set top box maker Pace Micro Technology sawshares tumble 45%, down 32p to 40p, after issuing a profits warning.
The group said profits are expected to be £1.7m lower than forecast for the year to June 1 after renegotiating a key contract with Sky.
EGi News 02/07/02
