Tech shares hit by sell off

The London market has suffered another slump as tech shares have been hit by a further sell-off.

Shares were depressed by subdued trading on Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-dominated Nasdaq.

There was also a fresh round of bleak corporate news, with Psion cutting jobs and Compaq warning of worsening economic conditions in Europe.

FTSE-250 firm Psion says the IT sector is facing its biggest crisis since 1985 and is axing 250 jobs.

By the close of trading, the FTSE-100 had dived 76 points to 5391.9 - its seventh consecutive fall.

Psion recovered its initial 25% dive to close down just 1%, or a penny at 70p.

However, a number of FTSE-100 stocks were not so fortunate, and closed heavily lower.

Computer services group CMG slid 10%, off 26p to 229p, while Logica fell 30½p to 675½p and Dimension Data fell 9½p to 141p.

High street retailer Marks & Spencer however lost early gains, to close down ½p at 248½p.

The group, which announced a further fall in sales, had seen the City cheer up on reports of better margins.