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Wednesday March 21 1:22 PM ET London Shares Hit Two-Year Low

LONDON (AP) - Share prices on the London Stock Exchange dropped Wednesday, when the blue-chip index reached its lowest point in more than two years.

Disappointment following the U.S. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) announcement of a half a percentage point cut in interest rates was reflected in London trading, with the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-Share Index down 106.1 points, or 1.9 percent, at 5,540.7. The last time is ended lower was Dec. 14, 1998, at 5,534.3.

Provisional market volume was 1.93 billion shares compared with 1.85 billion on Tuesday.

Few sectors escaped heavy selling Wednesday. Until now, the heaviest losses have been confined to the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. The only sectors to finish out of the red in London were aerospace, beverages and water.

The heaviest falls in the FTSE 100 were posted by Energis, which fell 13 percent, COLT Telecom, down 11 percent, Reuters down 11 percent, and Logica down 10 percent.

British Telecom lost 5.5 percent.

Royal Bank of Scotland ended down 6.0 percent and Bank of Scotland fell 5.7 percent.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), March 21, 2001