The convenience food producer disgusted analysts with weak interim numbers and was splattered all over the trading floor with a 7 per cent loss to 132.5p. Serco, down 70p to 950p, was hit by reflected gloom as the market fretted about margins in the competitive support market. Sector member AEA Technology was also down 8.1 per cent to 735p.Hazlewood Foods was also guilty of spreading the selling disease. Rumour has it that it has lost the contract to provide would-be drivers with theory tests The shares crashed over 8 per cent to 521p. Sema was the second largest faller in the Footsie, shedding over 9 per cent to 450p.

Colt, the Footsie newcomer, also suffered, losing 48.5p to 743.5p.Among the IT mid-cappers, CMG fell 117p to 1,385 Micro Focus did not help itself. The fast-growing group lost its chief executive and over 6 per cent to close at 117.5p.Capita Group drove into a corner and triggered a slide in support services stocks. Its neighbour Bank of Scotland fell 39p to 631p in sympathy.Lloyds TSB, still hot favourite for a takeover of Barclays, lost over 6 per cent to 791p after house broker ABN Amro cut its 1999 profit forecast to pounds 2.9bn from pounds 2.95. Abbey National was also among the banks’ casualties, losing 64p to 1,161p.Only five Footsie members survived the bloodbath Telewest excited investors with its growth prospects The shares put on 2p to 133p Takeover talk kept EMI afloat The music group rose a harmonious 4.25p to 365.25p.

Standard Chartered was also on the receiving end of the Hang Seng/ Credit Lyonnais double whammy and crashed 17p to 627p.The domestic banks fared little better. Royal Bank of Scotland, down 57p to 856p continued its rotten run ahead of tomorrow’s results The market is worried about bad debts. Fears over its exposure to melting global markets took 41.5p off the shares, which closed at 452p.HSBC suffered from the Hang Seng’s weakness and a downgrade from Credit Lyonnais The final deficit was 104p to 1,536p. The FTSE 250 closed down 80.3 at 4821.4, while the Small Cap shed 25.5 to 2039.5.Financials were caught in the eye of the storm as the recent outperformance whetted the profit- takers’ appetite Amvescap took the brunt of some heavy selling. A gloomy CBI survey on services gave further ammunition to the sellers and red became the colour of choice among City screens. The mid and small cap fared relatively better but were still nursing big losses.

The main index finished a punch-drunk 206.4, or 3.6 per cent, lower at 5537.5, after breaking through the psychologically important 5,700 and 5,600 barriers. The biggest push by far came from Wall Street, which plunged 200 points overnight. Hong Kong and Tokyo also did their bit to corrode confidence and when London opened its fate was sealed.
Profit-taking set in, buoyed by the feeling that the market had been overbought in recent times. FOOTSIE TOOK a massive tumble yesterday as a combination of American gloom, profit-taking and bearish economic sentiment conjured up the biggest fall since the crash of 1987.