Britain's FTSE 250 fell on Friday 6 November, giving back the record high it reached only a day earlier, as a global sell-off in technology shares swept through London's mid-cap market. The index closed at 24,504.32, down 0.80 percent on the day, according to Sharecast's closing report, leaving it about 672 points below the record intraday peak it set on Thursday.

The reversal was sharp. On Thursday the FTSE 250 climbed to an intraday high of 25,176.12, an all-time record, helped by bank stocks rallying ahead of the Bank of England's policy decision, according to Reuters. By Friday morning the mood had turned: the index was down about 1.2 percent in early trading, and although it recovered some ground by the close, it still ended the week in the red.

The trigger came from Wall Street. On Thursday the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52 percent, its worst day in 19 months, and the S&P 500 dropped 4.4 percent, its largest one-day fall since April 2025. Investors were rattled by fears that the Democrats' gains in the US midterm elections could bring tougher regulation of artificial intelligence and slow the building of data centres, the spending boom that has driven technology shares higher all year.

The selling spread quickly. Asian markets fell heavily overnight, with Japan's Nikkei entering a bear market and South Korea's Kospi briefly triggering a circuit breaker, before European markets opened lower. The pan-European STOXX 600 closed down 1 percent, Germany's DAX fell 1.92 percent and France's CAC 40 lost 0.81 percent. In London the blue-chip FTSE 100 closed down 1.01 percent at 10,673.94, having fallen as much as 2.35 percent during a turbulent morning session.

The FTSE 250 felt the pressure more keenly than the FTSE 100 in one respect: it is the more domestically focused of the two indices, listing companies ranked 101 to 350 by market value on the London Stock Exchange, so it is more exposed to the health of the UK economy. Rising gilt yields have also weighed on domestic shares, and the Bank of England raised its key rate to 4 percent on Thursday, its first increase in three years, adding to borrowing-cost worries for UK-focused firms.

There were sharp moves among individual mid-cap stocks. Man Group was the biggest faller in the FTSE 250, dropping 6.5 percent after Kuwait's public pension fund won a lawsuit against the asset manager on Thursday, Reuters reported. At the other end, Georgia's TBC Bank topped the index with a 6.1 percent rise after its third-quarter net profit increased.

A stronger-than-expected US jobs report gave traders little comfort. The US economy added 165,000 jobs in October, far above the 65,000 forecast, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent. The figures strengthened the case for the Federal Reserve to raise rates in December, lifting the dollar and US Treasury yields and adding to the risk-off mood in equities.

Attention now turns to US inflation figures due on Tuesday, which will shape expectations for the Fed's December decision, and to a heavy week of UK company results, including Vodafone, Rolls-Royce and Taylor Wimpey. For the FTSE 250, the question is whether Thursday's record was the start of a lasting run for domestic shares or a high-water mark before a choppier stretch. Market moves are not investment advice, and a single session's high does not by itself signal a lasting trend.