Tech shares take battering

Tech shares have taken a battering on the market following bad sentiment in the US, dragging the FTSE-100 Index further below the elusive 6,000 mark.

A warning from US tech firm Sun Microsystems helped knock shares in America, where both the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones opened sharply lower.

And in the UK, the Footsie followed suit, plummeting 67 points to 5796.9 by the close of play.

Telecom equipment giant Marconi, which had been under pressure all day following news that merger talks between international rivals Alcatel and Lucent had broken down, slid nearly 10%, off 38p at 356p.