London's stock market began the week as it ended the previous one; under light but persistent, downside pressure.
There were no immediately apparent reasons behind the market's latest slide. On the contrary, the day's news was mostly positive, especially the outcome of the UK's record-breaking rights issue, the £5.9 billion cash call from BT, which was 90 per cent taken up.
Telecoms specialists said that take-up was just above as good as the market could have hoped for in the circumstances, which has seen telecoms stocks under constant fire for some time.
There was, however, an element of apprehension in the market, dealers said, about the fourth quarter results expected from Oracle, the US software giant, after Wall Street closed last night.
In the background to another day of weakness in the leaders were the same concerns that have gnawed away at the market's confidence for some weeks; earnings worries on both sides of the Atlantic and the deteriorating domestic economic picture.
Wall Street and global markets suffered a series of wounding blows last week, with profit warnings from companies such as Nokia, JDS Uniphase and Nortel causing pulses of alarm.
And sentiment in London yesterday wasn't helped by the news that Independent Insurance has been placed in liquidation. The FTSE 100 index finished at its lowest of the day, down 51.4 at 5,671.6, and never touched positive territory.
It did launch a determined run in mid-afternoon, only to fall away sharply in the last half-hour of trading as the Dow Jones Industrial Average turned back after a strong run that saw it up 85 points at best.
Meanwhile, Lehman Brothers lowered its end-year FTSE 100 target to 6,100, from its previous forecast of 6,800 made in December 2000.
The FTSE SmallCap also finished at its lowest of the session, closing 11.1 off at 3,061.7. The Techmark 100 delivered the worst individual performance among the leading indices, by sliding 22.29, or 1.2 per cent, to 1,833.16, as the technology, media and telecom areas of the market took yet another battering.
