FTSE 100 falls 0.5%

Wednesday 30th September 2009

The FTSE 100 fell by over one per cent in afternoon trading on Wednesday, mirroring falls in New York.

The index had matched the opening price for much of the day until 14:40 BST when it saw a sudden nosedive.

The Dow was down 0.75 per cent at 11:55 EDT (16:55 BST) to 9,668.82 after making up some of the lost ground.

In London, a similar climb from the fall below 5,100 saw the FTSE 100 close down 0.5 per cent – or 25.82 points – to 5,133.90.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said: "The catalyst for the sudden slide in UK blue-chip stocks was the opening on Wall Street, where a worse-than-forecast Chicago PMI reading appears to have derailed Monday's optimism and set up a second session of falls for UK and US stocks.

"Somewhat strangely, the Chicago PMI has overshadowed the news that US GDP did not contract as much as first thought: the latest revision today showed the world's biggest economy shrunk by only 0.7 per cent, and not the previously calculated one per cent drop."

The afternoon falls created a wide mix of stocks climbing and falling.

Man Group rose 7.50 per cent after the hedge fund revealed its funds under management were up to $43.8 billion and profit before tax was at $280 million.

Legal & General rose 6.10 per cent as speculation that the insurer was preparing defences against a takeover bid from Resolution continued.

Smiths Group rose 6.03 per cent, while Wolseley gained 3.79 per cent and Aviva gained 3.92 per cent.

TUI Travel was down 4.29 per cent as it revealed it was looking to raise £440 million to fund acquisitions and repay loans, while Thomas Cook fell 3.53 per cent despite putting out a positive trading update.

Liberty International fell 3.94 per cent, while retailers Next and Marks & Spencer were down 3.39 per cent and 3.14 per cent on the latter's warning of tough times ahead for 2010.

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