FTSE battered in morning bloodbath

The FTSE 100 Index slumped by as much as 5% at one stage today as the panic-selling sweeping London’s financial markets intensified.

The decline mirrored the performance in the United States last night after the Dow Jones Industrial Average dived by 635 points in the worst performance since December 1, 2008 – the sixth largest in the Dow’s history.