The UK equity market experienced unprecedented levels of market volatility over September, taking its lead from the US. In this environment, economic news took a back seat in determining stockmarket direction. All sectors of the FTSE All-Share index ended the month in negative territory At the stock level, the London Stock Exchange was the best-performing company in the FTSE 100 index, while HBOS was the worst, after seeing its share price fall sharply amid concerns over its future.Against this backdrop, the FTSE All-Share, FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 indices fell by 13.2%, 12.9% and 15.6%, respectively. As a result of the ongoing turmoil in the financials sector, the map of the UK banking industry continued to be redrawn. For instance, Spanish bank Santander - owner of Abbey and soon-to-be owner of Alliance & Leicester - announcedplans to purchase Bradford & Bingley's £24bn deposit book for £612m (Bradford & Bingley's mortgage book is to be nationalised).Meanwhile, HBOS agreed to be purchased by Lloyds TSB for £12.2bn.