FTSE fights off downward spiral

London’s FTSE 100 Index stuck close to its opening mark today after managing to halt the downward spiral seen in its previous session.

The Footsie fell more than 70 points yesterday following gloomy trading updates from Unilever and Dutch company Heineken.

But the mood was more resilient today as the Footsie refused to buckle under the pressure of a 127 points fall for the Dow Jones Industrial Average last night – rising instead 1.2 points to 4089.1 in the first hour.