British Stocks Firm After Big Drop in Tokyo : New York Markets Still Affect Foreign Trading

Stock prices plunged Friday in Tokyo but then steadied at lower levels in London as uneasiness over volatile activity in the New York markets continued to dominate trading.

While overseas markets were reeling from Thursday’s 77.09-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial index, the U.S. blue chip barometer managed to eke out a tiny gain Friday, closing out a week that saw both record-shattering lows and an avalanche of shares trading hands.

The Dow index closed up 0.33 point at 1,950.76 after being down nearly 30 points.

The picture was much the same in Canada at the Toronto and Montreal stock exchanges. The Toronto 300 composite index slipped 28.20 points to 3,079.39, and the Montreal market portfolio index edged down 3.93 points to 1,544.24.

In London, stock prices closed down but were up from their midday lows as the market reacted to better-than-expected British trade figures and a lowering of interest rates by several British banks.

The Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-share index closed down 38.0 points at 1,795.2. Earlier in the session, the index had been off 86.9 points but was buoyed after Wall Street’s opening appeared relatively stable.

Stock prices also closed lower elsewhere in Europe. Stocks closed narrowly lower in Paris.

Selling orders swamped the market at the opening in Tokyo, where traders were panicked by Thursday’s drop in the Dow industrials. The key 225-share Nikkei stock average lost 1,203.23 points--its second largest one-day decline--to close at 23,201.22.