FTSE holds firm after global falls

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished almost 6% down, while Japan's Nikkei recovered from a 7% drop earlier in the session to finish 2.5% lower.

The Footsie lost more than 4% of its value on Wednesday after Prime Minister Gordon Brown's admission that Britain is likely to go into recession.

A day ahead of the release of GDP figures expected to show the first quarter of negative growth since 1992, trading remained uncertain in London with experts increasingly gloomy about the prospects for the economy. The FTSE 100 Index was marginally ahead in early trading.

The pound remains near a five-year low of 1.62 US dollars and has fallen against the euro in what is close to its worst week since sterling's ejection from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.

Foreign exchange, gilts and equity markets all reacted strongly to the Prime Minister and the governor of the Bank of England admitting that Britain is likely to enter its first recession in 16 years.

CMC Markets dealer Matt Buckland said: "So long as there's this rather blunt - and perhaps rather realistic - fear of a global recession looming, then there's certainly scope that stocks will continue to struggle to find support in the short to medium term."

The latest falls came as the White House announced a US-hosted world summit to discuss the economic crisis would be held in Washington on November 15.

Britain is not technically deemed to be in recession until two successive quarters of negative growth have been recorded - something which cannot take place until the next round of quarterly figures are released in January.

But following Bank governor Mervyn King's recession warning, the Prime Minister was forced to concede on Wednesday that myriad expert predictions were almost certainly correct.