A boost from New York today helped leading shares claw earlier heavy losses in the wake of major falls in the Far East.

Both Tokyo and Hong Kong plummeted, leaving the FTSE-100 Index hitting a session low of 5,777.7 during the morning, a 93 point fall.

But an afternoon lift on Wall Street improved market sentiment and the index closed at 5,837.9, down 32.8 points.

Far East linked stocks were in the front line of fire with HSBC falling 58p to £15.42, Cable & Wireless dropping 3p to 690p and Standard Chartered slipped 4p to 757p.

Geri Halliwell's departure from the Spice Girls helped push down shares in EMI Group, for whom the feisty five have been a major revenue earner over the past year. EMI, still the subject of takeover speculation, fell 10p to 508p.

Another survey revealed this morning that manufacturers were heading deeper into recessionary trouble after a fall in new orders abroad and at home.

But key manufacturers were mixed with engineering group Siebe fall 32p to £15.03, ICI plunging 23p to £11.38, while Tomkins firmed 1.5p to 355p and GEC improved 5.5p to 507.5p.

Smiths Industries gained 23p to 993p after winning a new set of orders to upgrade plane electronic systems.

And British Steel climbed 2.5p to 154p on the back of reports that brokers were positive about its outlook following its cost-cutting drive that included thousands of job losses.

Meanwhile, Stagecoach soared 30p to £13.82.5 on news that it could earn a place among the UK's top 100 companies as merging partners Commercial Union and General Accident said they would be trading under the single name of CGU tomorrow.

Commercial Union eased 5p to £11.08, while General Accident strengthened 4p to £14.05.

Elsewhere, the long-running takeover wrangle for Birmingham Midshires looked set to be resolved with a reported £5m compensation payment being made to Royal Bank of Scotland in return for withdrawing its offer.

Reports claimed RBS would scoop a further £10m if the Halifax succeeds in its takeover plans.

Halifax shares plunged 29p to 895p - a fall of more than 2% in the company's value.

But RBS also fell 14p to £10.20 on what was largely a poor morning for financial stocks.

Lloyds TSB dropped 14.5p to 875p, Alliance & Leicester eased 12p to 817p, Abbey National cooled 3p to £10.90, NatWest slipped 29p to £10.90.

Woolwich stumbled 8.5p to 335.5p, while Barclays picked up 34p to £16.68 and Bank of Scotland firmed 1.5p to 710p.

Shares in Vickers dipped marginally, 1p to 242.5p, in the start of a week which will see it face hard questioning at its EGM over the future for Rolls-Royce Motors which also take in Bentley cars.

News of major gas finds in Pakistan bolstered shares in Premier Oil and Monument Oil & Gas, undaunted by fears of an accelerating arms race between the country and neighbouring India.

Lasmo, down 3p to 287p, struck similar potential riches in the area recently.

Shares in Premier gushed up 0.5p to 47.5p and Monument sparked up 3.75p to 68.5p.

Media analysts remained unimpressed by a strong trading year at media group Emap, which reaped benefits from improving French markets.

The group fell 12.5p to £12.80.5.

Changes in the market included: BAA down 30.5p to 701p, Compass Group down 51p to £12.19, Ladbroke down 11.5p to 334.5p, Halifax down 29p to 895p, British Energy up 33p to 598p.