Footsies Fkd

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    FTSE lurches lower after Dow fall; banks, WPP drop
    17:30, Tuesday, 6 August 2002

    LONDON, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 share index
    slumped over two percent early on Tuesday, taking another fall
    after a sharp drop on Wall Street overnight as gloomy economic
    data knocked fragile hopes of recovery.

    At 0718 GMT the FTSE 100 <.FTSE> benchmark index was down
    92.3 points, or 2.3 percent, at 3,904.1, after hitting 3,900.7,
    its worst intraday level since last month's six-year low of
    3,626 points hit on July 26.

    Dealers said the latest fall and weak economic data on both
    sides of the Atlantic puts the FTSE back on course to test those
    lows again.

    Financial stocks led the early fall, with banks wiping 21
    points off the FTSE due to their high exposure to economic
    downturn and bigger bad debt provisions. Insurers were also hit
    again by their exposure to the market's latest lurch lower, and
    Aviva was down five percent.

    Advertising giant WPP fell eight percent in initial
    trading, after bad news from U.S. rival Interpublic on
    Monday and general worries over the economic downturn.

    But tobacco stocks bucked the gloom and British American
    Tobacco added two percent, supported by news the
    California Supreme Court handed the industry a partial victory
    on Monday in a verdict giving cigarette makers some protection
    from smoker lawsuits.

    ((Steve Slater, UK Stock Market team, +44 20 75424367, fax
    44 20 7542 2120, [email protected]))


 
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