London close: Footsie finishes well below 5,000

Though share prices recovered a tad after some reassuring noises from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, London still finished the day deep on the red, with the Footsie well below the psychologically important 5,000 level. Federal Reserve president Ben Bernanke told the Joint Economic Committee in Congress that the "Fed is ready to take further action as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in a context of price stability." He also made it clear that monetary policy is not a panacea. That is why he asked politicians to approve their own measures to create jobs and promote growth.Meanwhile, in Europe, Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup finance minister committee, said that there will be a delay to the decision on whether or not to give Greece the next €8bn tranche of aid. Nevertheless, he repeatedly made plain that none of the Eurozone countries was urging a Greek default and categorically denied that there was any question of Greece leaving the euro area.Juncker also suggested that conditions of the 21 July agreement (for the second package) may need to be looked over once again and a review of the level of the private sector involvement could be reviewed. This sparked a wide sell-off in banks across the continent on concerns over further write-downs of Greek debt, with Dexia, UBS and Deutsche Bank falling heavily in Europe. In London, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds were among the worst performers. RBS was out of favour on reports that a £1.4bn deal between itself and Blackstone to dispose of the bank's troubled property loans could fail.Mining stocks took a bashing, after Goldman Sachs cut its global growth forecast for the year and as metal prices shifted lower.Engineers Weir, GKN and IMI were also being shelved on global growth fears.Heating and plumbing giant Wolseley sank despite resuming its final dividend for the year ended 31 July as it swung to a pre-tax profit of £391m, up from a loss of £328m the year before. In contrast, supermarket giant Tesco was the best performer ahead of its interim results due tomorrow, after UBS upgraded the stock from neutral to buy and added the stock to its 'Key Calls' list, highlighting that "driving higher returns is now at the heart of group strategy." Home Retail was in demand on the back of vague takeover rumours. Among the possible suitors which are being talked about are Wal-Mart and a US private equity fund. FTSE 100 - RisersTesco (TSCO) 380.10p +2.59%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,113.00p +1.92%Glencore International (GLEN) 397.00p +1.77%International Power (IPR) 312.40p +0.39%Autonomy Corporation (AU.) 2,550.00p +0.04%FTSE 100 - FallersHargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 412.60p -7.88%Barclays (BARC) 144.35p -7.62%IMI (IMI) 636.50p -7.15%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,375.00p -7.03%GKN (GKN) 157.00p -6.55%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,499.00p -6.55%Amec (AMEC) 740.50p -6.33%Prudential (PRU) 509.00p -6.18%Vedanta Resources (VED) 948.00p -6.14%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,125.00p -6.06%FTSE 250 - RisersHome Retail Group (HOME) 121.70p +2.61%Debenhams (DEB) 58.60p +2.18%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 528.50p +2.03%Shanks Group (SKS) 108.00p +1.60%Rank Group (RNK) 117.30p +1.12%Cranswick (CWK) 631.00p +0.96%Devro (DVO) 245.00p +0.91%Greggs (GRG) 468.50p +0.80%FTSE 250 - FallersOphir Energy (OPHR) 231.90p -13.24%Ocado Group (OCDO) 88.05p -11.06%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 157.10p -9.71%Perform Group (PER) 200.00p -9.09%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 238.70p -8.93%Savills (SVS) 256.20p -8.83%SVG Capital (SVI) 187.90p -8.79%Fenner (FENR) 280.00p -8.53%Betfair Group (BET) 660.50p -8.33%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 469.90p -8.31%FTSE TechMARK - RisersAntisoma (ASM) 2.22p +1.60%Vislink (VLK) 15.88p +1.60%Optos (OPTS) 143.75p +0.88%FTSE TechMARK - FallersAsterand (ATD) 3.12p -19.35%AEA Technology Group (AAT) 2.00p -12.09%Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 4.76p -11.85%E2V Technologies (E2V) 86.75p -10.34%--jh