Shares slump on London market

Shares on the London market have slumped amid concerns about the global economy.

Last week, the FTSE 100 Index surged forward only to fall back on Friday.

At the close of Monday's trading it had dropped even further to close 79.7 points down at 5185.0.

Alex Scott, analyst at 7 Investment Management, said traders were hesitating ahead of the Federal Reserve's update on US interest rates. Fears of more gloomy economic news from the Fed meant Wall Street opened down and offered London little in the way of inspiration.

Media and telecom stocks were some of the day's biggest losers. Daily Mail & General Trust down 8% or 53½p to 654p, FT group Pearson slumped 31½p at 861½p and news and information group Reuters shed 23p at 745p.

Trinity Mirror was down 3%, off 14p at 408½p. The group today said the uncertain economic outlook and unpredictable advertising conditions were expected to continue into 2002.

BT Group and its former mobile phone arm mmO2 were also on the back foot over fears of increased competition - mmO2 lost 4% or 3¼p at 88p and despite a potential deal, BT shed 11½p at 262p.

Other telecoms suffering included Vodafone, off 7p at 183p and Cable & Wireless, down 3p at 351p. Tech firms Sage, Arm and Logica were also struggling, with the software group dropping 4¾p at 252¼p, the chip designer losing 17p at 381p and the computer services firm off 3p at 813½p.

But shares in British Airways came back from a weak session to end the day leading the Footsie risers board, up 2% at 4½p at 228¼p.

The biggest Footsie risers were British Airways, up 4½p at 228¼p, Severn Trent, up 8p at 683p, Reckitt Benckiser, up 10p at 930p and Imperial Tobacco, ahead 9p at 863p. The heaviest fallers were Daily Mail & General Trust, off 53½p at 654p, ICI, down 24¼p at 400p, EMI Group, off 20p at 340p and Enterprise Oil, down 25p at 425p.