Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

It is a different story across the pond where the Dow Jones fell by only 0.2 per cent, and the NASDAQ made gains after monumentally plummeting eight per cent last week.

The only company among the Big Ten, businesses in the SHAREtrack with market caps over £1bn, to escape the nationwide woes was builders' merchant, Travis Perkins, which showed a one per cent gain after expanding into the tile business via a £12m acquisition.

Breweries Whitbread and Greene King each lost nine per cent of their value, accompanied by media reports that Greene King has warned of possible pub closures caused by the smoking ban.

Risers in the index were few and far between, with only 17 companies making entries in the positive column.

Over-the-counter pharma, Meldex was one of the few and saw gains of 18 per cent without an announcement, while micro-capped human tissue supply firm, Asterand posted a rise of 15 per cent.

The extent of the carnage becomes evident with the news that the biggest gain was made by electronic instruments and protection equipment maker, MTL In struments, which tacked on just 15p to its share price.

A much more well-populated list is that of the week's fallers, topped by SHAREtrack's big guns in the construction and healthcare sectors.

The biggest percentage loss this week was made by Nestor Healthcare, which lost a huge 58 per cent of its value after announcing that it expected profits for the next two years to be between 15 and 20 per cent below analysts' expectations.

Care UK also suffered, dropping 23 per cent, or 112p from its value despite posting strong results, after losing a key DoH contract.

The wooden spoon for value loss this week went to construction and services giant, Kier, which didn't make an announcement, but may be suffering as a result of a predicted stagnation of the housing market.