The London Stock Exchange lost £37bn in share values this morning as the FTSE 100 dropped 160.5 points to 4909.8, the first time it has fallen below the 5000 mark since 1998.
Cordiant Communications, which suffered a downgrade from "buy" to "hold" on Friday at the hands of UBS Warburg, saw its shares fall 2.9% this morning in London to 149.5p. On Friday, the stock opened at 165.5p, to close down on the day at 155p.
Chime, which owns HHCL & Partners and Bell Pottinger Communications, continued to slide today hitting 133.5p, down 2.9% on Friday's close of 137.5p. Until the end of last week, Chime's stock had been virtually flat for weeks.
Tempus and WWP Group have been the least affected of the UK stocks. WPP is actually up fractionally on the day, rising 0.4% to 643.5p as the City digests its offer document for Tempus issued this afternoon. Tempus fell just 0.4% to 575p, for the same reason. Aegis, which has been mooted as a possible partner for WPP if it lost the battle for Tempus, dropped 3.8% to trade at 94.2p.
The London crash follows news that Wall Street took a tumble on Friday, falling 235 points in response to poor US employment figures.
The Interpublic Group of Companies fell 3.8% as Wall Street opened today. Interpublic also announced it is to axe 70-80 jobs at its Foot Cone & Belding unit. Fellow US group Omnicom, however, refused to follow the herd, rising 0.8% in New York.
In Paris, the two French advertising groups were suffering much the same as their UK counterparts. Publicis fell 3.7% to €23.12 (£13), while Havas was down 5.7% to €8.63 (£5.32).
The biggest losers of the day were radio group GWR, which has fallen 12% to 202.5p this morning; and the Daily Mail & General Trust, which is down 6.9% to 582p. They were joined by marketing services group Incepta, owner of PR firm Citigate Dewe Rogerson, which fell 7.6% to 42.5p.
The story is equally gloomy in the rest of the media sector. The fortunes of the two major ITV partners took another downward turn after weekend reports revealed that advertising revenues continued to fall at the channel. Carlton's shares fell 1.3% to 251.5p and Granada dropped 5.1% to 123.7p.
BSkyB lost 2.5% as speculation gathered pace that chief executive Tony Ball could become an integral part of the management team News Corporation chairman Ruprt Murdoch is lining up if he wins the battle to take control of DirecTV.
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