Footsie beginning to claw back early losses

The Footsie index of 100 leading stocks is down 51.6 points by mid-morning at 4984.4, although this marks something of a rebound from an earlier 133-point slump.

Traders say the initial slide was a knee-jerk reaction to the allies' attacks on Afghanistan, and most expect markets to show some sort of recovery during the day's trading.