FTSE 100's third worst week on record

The FTSE 100 slid to its third worst week on record today, closing at its lowest level since April 2003, amid further signs of the frailty of the world economy.

The index of London's leading companies closed down 94.03 points at 3780.96, down more than 450 points over the course of the week, a 10.7% fall that made it the third worst weekly performance on record.

Only the crash of October 1987, when shares fell 28% in a week, and the 21% decline in the week of October 6-10, at the height of the banking crisis, caused more damage to the share prices of the UK's leading companies.

The day began indecisively as the market took mixed signals from yesterday's heavy sell-off in New York and recovery on the Asian markets.

But the FTSE 100 moved sharply lower over the course of the afternoon as fears over the future of the US bank Citigroup intensified.

Barclays was the best performing of the British bank stocks, up more than 4% and 5.5p to 133.2p, after the group's controversial plan to raise funds from the Middle East won grudging support from Legal & General.

Royal Bank of Scotland also ended the day in positive territory, gaining 1.4p to 47.4p.

HBOS edged up 1.3p to 73.3p, while merger partner Lloyds TSB dropped 0.6p to 124.7p.

Electrical retailer DSG International, the owner of Currys and PC World, was the biggest percentage riser of the FTSE 250, up 21%, albeit by just 2.25p to 13p.

DSG's shares have been punished in recent weeks as investors fret about its ability to withstand the downturn.

The company has around £100m of debt and analysts believe a number of its overseas operations could be up for sale.

The stock benefited today from a relatively positive note from Credit Suisse analysts, who raised their rating from "underperform" to "outperform".

They nevertheless cut their share price target to 25p from 34p and slashed profit forecasts for the current financial year by 63% to £33.7m.

Spreadbetting firm IG Group recovered some of the losses it suffered yesterday after revealing a rise in bad debts. The shares rose 16.75p to 182.75p.

Another company on the rebound was the Aim-listed oil explorer Sibir Energy, whose shares had halved in value over the course of Wednesday and yesterday, leaving them more than 90% off their peak of 814p in June.

But today the shares were up more than 40% or 31p at 106.5p as FD Capital analyst Stephane Foucaud changed the stock's rating from sell to buy and maintained a target price of 320p.

Shares in the brewers Fuller Smith & Turner rose 35.25p to 351p after reporting a "resilient" performance in the first half of its financial year.

The company, which makes London Pride beer and owns more than 350 pubs, said underlying interim profit had fallen, but revenues were still up 1%.