Another volatile week, another almost unchanged FTSE 100 over the past seven days. The leading index has ended down 81.4 points at 5884.3 this afternoon; a week ago it ended at 5888.5. But that statistic disguises a 200-point rise early in the week which has been steady wiped out since then.
Again it was concerns about the credit crunch and a US recession which did the damage. Wall Street is nearly 200 points lower at the moment after a gloomy Chicago business survey, record losses at insurer AIG and worries about whether the bail out of bond specialist Ambac would succeed.
And the banks continue to be under the cosh, with HBOS, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland all down more than 4% today.
A smattering of bid news has done little for the overall market. Insurer Resolution is 3% higher at 690p, as bidder Pearl attempted to dispel worries that its 720p a share offer could fall apart at the last minute. It hopes to get most of the necessary change of control information to the City regulator by next Friday, with the final go-ahead expected some time after that.
Oil services group Expro International has ended 332.5p to £12.59 after announcing a bid approach. Analysts believe a number of companies - trade and private equity - would be interested in the business.
