FT.com - UK Equities...FTSE falls to 5½-year low...DSG ended a difficult week on a positive note following a U-turn from analysts and an upgraded recommendation from 'underperform' to 'outperform'...Retailers to ramp up price cutting...Marks and Spencer's "guerrilla" sale caught the competition on the hop and sparked copy-cat discounting across the high street as retailers scramble to step up price cutting in the run-up to Christmas ...Lager out as Britons warm to beer...Beer sales in pubs may be in steep decline but dark ale, long seen as the dowdy English beer compared with its flashier continental cousins, is on the rise...Fuller's bucks trend as ale sales prevail...Fuller, Smith & Turner, the brewer and pub operator, bucked the industry trend by maintaining sales growth over the past two months in spite of the sharp deterioration in consumer confidence...Off-target Aim...Despite its current malaise, London's junior market has a vital part to play, and should still be there to play it when the economic recovery comes...Fear of severe downturn grips world markets ...Fears of a severe recession gripped financial markets as dire unemployment figures from the US drove long-term interest rates down to record lows...Fear stalks the world's economies...Anxiety about a severe recession gripped financial markets as dire unemployment figures from the US drove long-term interest rates to record lows...High street spending defies forecasts...The volume of UK sales in the three months to October was flat, a much better outcome than expected and in contradiction to gloomy industry surveys, as retailers are forced into discounts to entice shoppers...Aim loses its shine as new listings dry up...The boom times have come to an abrupt halt for Aim, London's lightly regulated share market for smaller companies as new fundraisings dry up...Bank of England discussed 200bp rate cut...The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to slash the bank rate by 1.5 percentage points this month, and considered an even larger cut, underscoring concerns about credit conditions globally and the decline in consumption and demand at home...L&G supports Barclays issue through gritted teeth...Legal & General Investment Management has backed away from its threat to vote against Barclays' move to raise £7bn in fresh capital, much of it from Middle Eastern investors...RBS bosses apologise to investors...A profuse and candid apology to angry investors in Royal Bank of Scotland for its troubles was delivered by its chairman and outgoing chief executive ...Hedge fund investors pull out record $40bn...Hedge fund investors pulled a record $40bn out of the industry in October as poor performance prompted a flight to cash, according to data on Thursday...Halfords warns of fall in trading...Car maintenance and bike seller says sales have slowed since the end of September as it seeks to sell more high margin products...DMGT seeks to save £100m from cost cuts...Owner of the Daily Mail and a range of regional titles including the Evening Standard reveals plans to save £100m as it reports falling profits...