Footsie loses almost £22bn

Nearly £22bn was wiped from the FTSE 100 Index today.

The Footsie closed down 92.2 points to 5131.4.

A spate of bad news from the US, including a warning of lower profits from Coca-Cola, contributed to the gloom in the City.

Vodafone fell off 6¼p to 154¼p, while rival mmO2 slumped 1½p to 79½p.

Orange, which claimed top spot in the UK after its own subscriber numbers for the fourth quarter, ended the day down 18p at 525p.

BT Group closed the session 7¼p lower at 215¾p and Cable & Wireless fell 4% - or 10¾p - to 289½p.

Other tech stocks on the slide included Logica, down 21½p at 521½p and Sage, off 2½p at 239p.

BP, the market's biggest stock, lost 12½p to 537½p while Shell fell 12¾p to 474p. Takeover target Enterprise Oil fell 9p to 602p.

Media stocks were the main fallers, however, with FT publisher Pearson hit by a downgrade from JP Morgan and closing down 37p at 790p.

Satellite broadcaster BSkyB fell 45½p to 673p, Granada dropped 5¾p to 122¼p while Daily Mail & General Trust slipped 38½p to 636½p.