Leading shares fell for the ninth successive trading day in London on Thursday, their worst performance since January 2003, although it was a close run thing.
The FTSE 100 finished down 12.21 points at 5127.57, meaning £107bn has been wiped off the value of Britain's top companies since November 11.
With Wall Street closed for Thanksgiving, it was the eurozone crisis which once more dominated sentiment. Fitch downgraded Portugal's credit rating, while there was also disappointment with the outcome of a key meeting in Strasbourg between the French, German and Italian leaders.
Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Mario Monti offered no new initiatives to help solve the ever widening eurozone crisis, upsetting investors who had hoped for something concrete at last.
The uncertainty pushed up Italian, Spanish, French and German bond yields once more.
In January 2003 the FTSE 100 fell 11 days in a row, so if things carry on like this it may set a new record on the day of the Autumn statement next Tuesday.
Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads, said:
Another day another decline for the FTSE as concerns persist over the eurozone debt crisis. Italian 10 year government bond yields spiked back above the 7% level, considered to be the level that prompts a bailout and as a result buyers were nowhere to be seen. Germany's staunch refusal to step up to the plate and take the responsibility of being Europe's paymaster is causing investor sentiment to erode away day by day. Not even better than expected German business surveys were enough to eradicate the memories of Wednesday's poor German bond auction, from which a hangover most definitely still lingers.
The big test for markets into the year end is the up and coming European bond auctions. Whilst it's not uncommon to see a German bond auction not fully subscribed, if the other two ahead of the New Year don't see enough demand, then nerves will be considerably frayed.
