Carnage outside the FTSE 100

The FTSE 100 may be just ahead of January's level, but both the mid-cap and small caps indices are down on the year. That's because of their much greater exposure to the weakening domestic market.

Wednesday's quarterly reshuffle of the FTSE 100 marks the biggest upheaval in the index since 2001, when the dotcom bubble burst, said Robert Lindsay in The Times.

This time the blame is on volatility triggered by the credit crunch as reflected by Northern Rock, which leads seven companies ejected from the blue-chip index.

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