LONDON, June 24: Britain’s FTSE 100 index closed at a fresh nine-month low on Monday, pressured by weak banking and drug shares as doubts about earnings prospects and the wider economic recovery hit sentiment.

Advertising giant WPP led the retreat with a 6.5 per cent fall after it reported an eight per cent drop in organic revenues during the last five months and said it did not expect a full recovery until 2004.

The blue-chip index ended down 63.4 points or 1.38 per cent at 4,541.9, the lowest close since the index hit a four-year low of 4,433.7 on September 21. The FTSE has fallen 13 per cent so far this year.

“Without any positive news the market seems to want to drift lower and with investors who could be buyers sitting on the sidelines, there seems little prospect for a pick-up in the near term,” said Geoff Miller, senior investment manager at Exeter Asset Management.

“We have got the start of the interim results in a month’s time, which will obviously be key to seeing some positive moves in the market. Until then it is difficult to see what will give the market positive momentum,” he said.

The banking sector knocked 11 points off the main index, with Barclays falling 2.2 per cent, Lloyds TSB down 1.5 per cent and HSBC 1.4 per cent lower.

Shares in Lloyds TSB slipped despite Britain’s third biggest bank saying it expected its half-year results to meet market forecasts. Lloyds said it had increased its bad debt provisions, but this was due to increased lending volumes.

The heavily weighted drugs sector eroded another 14 points, with GlaxoSmithKline slipping 2.6 per cent and AstraZeneca down 2.1 per cent.—Reuters