Market report: Friday close

ANOTHER whirlwind session in New York promptly wiped out gains of up to 111 points on the London market as prospects of another US scandal hit home.

Talk of an grand jury investigation into US-based Duke Energy by the Houston, Texas, office of the US attorney sent the Dow Jones plunging and London bluechips hit new five-year lows.

At one stage the FTSE 100 was down 59 points at a five-year intraday low of 4171. It later rallied to end down 5.9 at 4224.1.

Until New York opened the London share market had come bouncing back from yesterday's five-year lows, mainly on the back of a bear squeeze, ahead of the weekend. A late overnight rally on Wall Street had enabled London share prices to recover, but half an hour after Wall Street opened the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it had served subpoenas on Duke Energy about its trading activities. The Dow Jones swiftly fell 166 points, later reducing the deficit. UK gas distributor Centrica promptly fell 10 1/2p to 175 1/4p.

Yesterday's victims of the fallout - telecoms, insurance companies, banks and pharmaceutical groups - managed to evade the late fallout in prices, however.

The techMARK, which fell to its lowest of 762.71 since its launch three years ago, rallied 21.7 to 784.41.

Cazenove's ill-timed note on life assurers, issued yesterday, finally put some positive action into the sector and Aviva added 13p at 426p before losing it to tned at 413p as its exposure to yesterday's sharp fall in equity prices declined.

Old Mutual firmed 2 1/4p to 83 3/4p and Legal & General moved ahead 2p to 115p.

The hard-hit telecoms sector led the blue-chip market up. Vodafone was 4 1/2p higher at 90 3/4p, heading the Footsie winners. MmO2 was just behind with a gain of 2 3/4p at 46 1/2p. Among pharmaceuticals, hit by the double whammy of the Bristol-Myers Squibb investigation across the Atlantic and the spin-off about HRT concerns, GlaxoSmithKline stood out with a gain of 35p to 1225p. AstraZeneca added 28p to 2370p.

BAA failed to benefit from a Schroder Salomon Smith Barney upgrade on its shares to outperform from neutral and fell 9 1/2p to 535 1/2p. Venture capitalist 3i snapped up one of the last up-for-sale assets of Marconi's, backing the £72m management buyout of its microwave and switching gadgetry business. Marconi rose 0/15p to 4p.

Gallaher lost some of the speculative sparkle prompted by BAT bid rumours, and entered the Footsie losers by falling 17 1/2p to 597 1/2p. BAT fell 11p to 666p.

Disappointment about that much-rumoured bid from National Australia Bank impacted on Abbey National, down 9p at 761p, a new year's low. Its shares have benefited in recent days by bid talk and demand from those investors seeking income, thanks to its generous yield of 7%. Alliance & Leicester slipped 12p to 783p as hopes faded for a bid from US-owned MBNA Bank.

Anite shares bounced more than 40% after the IT services group said it had drawn a line under the number of shares it would have to issue as payment for two recent acquisitions. The market had been worried about further dilution for existing shareholders and its share price bumped up 9 1/2p to 31 1/2p.

Prices and indices in this section are supplied from various sources and calculated at different times and may not always match those listed in the tables. Ofex prices relate to the previous close.

The Daily Mail's Geoff Foster on yesterday's trade
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Today's gainers and fallers