The London Stock Exchange revised the closing share prices of 11 of the UK's biggest companies as a result of misleading pricing from the new electronic trading system, Sets.

The changes affected the values of companies so much that they more than doubled the day's change in the FTSE 100 index from an original rise of 1.5 points to a lift of 3.2 points.

But the Stock Exchange denied there had been any deliberate price fixing.

The City had been worried bonus-hungry dealers would take advantage of the thin trading to change stock prices to make their performances look better.

Under the Sets system, when there is little trading - such as on New Year's Eve - a few deals in major stocks can massively alter individual share prices and the overall index.

This potentially allows crooked dealers or fund managers to alter the market in their favour.

Among the bigger changes today, insurance group Sun Life & Provincial was lifted from its original closing price by 30p to 460p.

Publisher Reed International was shifted upwards 30p to 610p.

Other companies affected were Bank of Scotland, British Land, General Accident, Glaxo Wellcome, Halifax, LASMO, Norwich Union, Shell Transport and Tomkins.

Fears that dealers would try to inflate stocks artificially also forced the Stock Exchange to announce that it would close 20 minutes early at 12:10 GMT.

The FTSE-100 shut shop at the same time as the futures market Liffe in an effort to prevent any price upsets.

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