London’s blue-chip stocks on Wednesday suffered their worst one-day points fall since October 2002, as fears of rising inflation and higher interest rates spooked an already jittery market.

Sparked by worse than expected US inflation data, the FTSE 100 lost 170.7 points, or 2.9 per cent, to 5,675.5, its worst one-day points fall since October 2002. The mid-cap FTSE 250 lost 266.3 points, 2.8 per cent, to 9,275.9.