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London's stock market will be hoping for a little less trouble next week after suffering its sharpest daily fall since March and a technical hitch.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index ended on Friday at 5,245.73 points, down just 0.1 per cent compared with the close one week earlier.
The threat of Dubai defaulting on its debt pushed the FTSE down more than 3 per cent in value on Thursday as the index dropped by its steepest amount for about eight months.
However, the FTSE staged a modest recovery on Friday, erasing earlier losses and closing 0.99 per cent higher as investors fished for bargain stocks.
Meanwhile on Thursday, trading on the FTSE had been suspended for more than three hours owing to a technical hitch.
'As far as glitches go, the London Stock Exchange couldn't have picked a worse day,' said ETX Capital senior trader Manoj Ladwa.
'Traders were at at their desks twiddling their thumbs for three hours while the LSE sorted out their issues ... Once trading did resume on the main bourse, traders continued dumping stocks.
'The banking sector was hit the hardest as concerns over exposure to the Middle East forced traders to reduce positions,' added Ladwa.
Investors in Britain will next week continue to digest quarterly earnings, including those from supermarket giant Tesco - Britain's biggest retailer.
