Stocks slide as accounting concerns impact on trade

LONDON shares continued to drift lower yesterday as investors' eyes turned towards George Bush's attempts to revive confidence in the US.

A brighter start on Wall Street this afternoon helped pull the FTSE 100 Index off its lows by the close of trading in the City. But as President Bush wrapped up his speech the Footsie still ended the session down 58.4 points at 4542.9.

Accounting concerns and fears over corporate profitability dominated most of the day in London, wiping out a near 35-point gain in the first hour.

The heaviest faller was software firm Sage, falling 12p to 147p.Mobile phone giant Vodafone also struggled, closing 3% down, a drop of 3p to 92p while rival mmO2 fell p to 46p. Retailers also drifted lower. Safeway fell 2p to 261p and rival Tesco lost almost 4% or 9p to 240p. Argos-to-Burberry group GUS slid 28p to 587p, Dixons fell 4p to 179p and Marks & Spencer fell 7p to 363p.

Financial stocks also suffered. Prudential fell 21p to 553p, Aviva slipped 19p to 478p and Royal & Sun Alliance ended 4p lower at 237p. Lloyds TSB was up 3p to 633p and Abbey National rose 2p to 795p but Barclays fell 10p to 502p and HSBC dropped 6p to 753p.

The highest risers were Xstrata, up 35p to 812p, South African Breweries, up 18p at 530p, Friends Provident, ahead 3p to 140p and WPP, up 10p to 538p.

The heaviest fallers were Sage, down 12p at 147p, GUS, off 28p at 587p and Hays, down 6p at 142p.