Shares battered by losses

Shares have suffered a bloodbath, falling 90 points after being battered by losses in the US and dampened by a sharp fall in insurance giant Prudential's stock.

The US Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average dived in early trading, with sentiment knocked by a number of announcements including Cisco Systems' job cuts.

In the UK, the screen was a sea of red, with all the key FTSE indices closing south.

By the end of trading, the FTSE-100 had fallen 90.8 points to 5826.5, while the FTSE-250, FTSE-350 and the TechMark100 were all in the red.

Arm was off 9%, down 29½p at 302p, Autonomy fell 8% - off 104p to £12.05p, while Dimension Data was 6% lower, down 23½p at 385p. Among the telecom fallers, Colt Telecom dived 7% - off 84p to £11.40, Telewest Communications was 5p lower at 135p and Vodafone slipped 4½p to 197p.

Telecom equipment firms were also lower, with Marconi off 34p at 447p, Spirent 28p down at 401p and Energis falling 10p at 420p. FTSE-250 tech fallers included Bookham Technology, off 19% - 83p lower at 361p, and computer services group Computacentre, down 24p at 363½p.

And Prudential's shares also provided a drag on the market, falling 14% fall - down 125p at 772p - after it emerged Pru is to splash out £18 billion on snapping up American General.

The biggest Footsie risers were Centrica, up 10p at 245p, Safeway up 5½p at 294p, Sainsbury up 5½p at 376p, Scottish & Southern Energy up 9p at 620p and Diageo up 10p at 726p.

Fallers were Prudential down 125p at 772p, Celltech Group down 130p at £11.70, Amvescap down 113p at £11.34, Arm down 29½p at 302p and Autonomy down 104p at £12.05.