Investec dives into the maelstrom

INVESTORS were steeling themselves for turmoil, and sure enough it came. A late wave of selling sent the stock market diving more than 200 points, plumbing depths not seen since 1996, and wiping £48bn off blue-chip share values.

Into these treacherous conditions, South African bank Investec pulled off its dual listing in London - but paid a heavy price. It raised £33.2m, instead of near to £100m, selling 4m of the 10m shares it hoped to place. Priced at 830p, a 6% discount to the close in Johannesburg last week, finished down 2 1/2p. 'They were lucky to get stuff away,' said Simon Tippett of Old Mutual Asset Managers. 'It is an horrendous time to list.'

Volatile conditions have already scuppered flotation plans of phone directories firm Yell and DIY retailer Focus Wickes. Pubs group Spirit, the former Punch Retail, put its flotation plans on hold. It looks like they will be stuck on the sidelines for some time.

The FTSE 100 fell 202.8 points to 3895.5, as bad news swept in from the US. Disgraced telecoms group WorldCom filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history. By London's close, the Dow Jones was down 193 points. Sterling was $1.58 and the euro was worth 63.9p. The dollar eased against the euro, trading at $1.01.

A shock profit warning from Dutch insurance giant Aegon reverberated through the UK sector. Prudential, reporting half-time figures on Wednesday, slumped 39 1/2p to 456 1/2p. Aviva, the former CGNU, fell 41p to 380p, making it the biggest blue-chip loser.

Investors fled to the safety of tobacco stocks but shunned oil companies on fears the slump in equity markets could hurt economic growth and hit petroleum demand. Shell slumped 39p to 380p. BP was 36 1/2p down at 428p.

Railtrack, up 3/4p to 230 1/2p, cleared another hurdle in its quest to return 245p-255p a share to investors. It sold its interest in London's Broadgate property development for £40m cash to British Land, down 4p to 530p. Railtrack shareholders are due to vote on the settlement at an egm today. The property giant recently saw off a challenge from rebel group Laxey Partners which held 9%, mostly borrowed for their voting rights. Insiders say Laxey returned the shares on Monday.

Financial news provider Reuters fell 24 1/2p to 299p ahead of half-year numbers. Analysts expect £20m pre-tax losses, compared to a £227m profit last time, due to redundancy costs, a big drop in earnings from subsidiary Instinet, and lower demand from subscribers such as banks and brokers.

Telecoms testing firm Spirent sank 7 1/4p to 71p after agreeing to pay £31.6m for the remaining 85% of US firm Caw Networks.

There were reports of bears sinking their claws into engineer Cookson, down 3 1/2p to 29 1/2p. It is trying to launch a deeply-discounted rights issue at 25p to raise urgently needed cash. Manchester United investors baulked at the £30m transfer fee for England and Leeds defender Rio Ferdinand, sending the shares down 10p to a five-year low of 108p.

Struggling IT consultancy Terence Chapman put itself up for sale. Its business supplying IT services to brokers and banks has taken a hammering. The shares fell 2 1/2p to 13 1/2p amid doubts a buyer will be found. They were once 667 1/2p.

Reading festival organiser Mean Fiddler rose 1/2p to 29p. The Aim-listed group bought 25% of Bizarre Festival, one of Germany's largest music events, with an option to raise it to 50% by 2004. Trading was suspended in Megalomedia at 26p, on a proposed £9.5m reverse takeover by baker Memory Lane Cakes. Megalomedia wants to buy niche food businesses and change its name to Finsbury Food.