US gloom hits Footsie

The FTSE 100 Index closed 73.9 points lower at 5093.4.

A subdued opening on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average continued to trade below the key 10,000 mark and the Nasdaq remained below 2,000, further bruised confidence.

In London, EMI slumped 6% - down 21p to 305p - after warning it would fail to meet full-year profits targets.

Cable & Wireless continued to slide, off 9¼p at 250p on speculation it may be about to release its third profits warning in 12 months.

Vodafone was also down, off 5¾p at 143¼p while mmO2, which said it would be slashing 1,400 jobs in the UK this year, fell 2¼p to 72½p.

Heavyweight oil and banking stocks also weighed on the market, with BP down 16p to 538p and Shell off 12¼p at 477p.

Standard Chartered and HSBC slid, off 15p at 755p and 14½p at 774½p respectively, following market concerns about the Chinese currency and the banks' Asian links.

Other fallers were Barclays, down 50p at £21.74 and Royal Bank of Scotland, down 11p at £17.92.

But BAA reversed earlier losses to close level at 641½p after third quarter profits fell 21% and it warned that a recovery after September 11 may take some time.

Royal & Sun Alliance also reversed earlier falls, after warning its results for 2001 would be hit by increased provisions against asbestos claims. Shares closed up ¾p at 317¾p.

Lattice also rose, up 5¼p to 168¾p, ahead of its results announcement later this week. The group is expected to unveil job cuts among its 14,000 Transco staff following regulatory targets set last year by Ofgem.