Bankers have claimed Goldman Sachs inadvertently triggered share price falls yesterday when it tried to sell a large series of equity positions from its hedge fund portfolios.

The bank was an active seller in the market, according to three bankers. One said: "It was trying to drop a lot of positions from its Global Alpha portfolio and got rid of a lot. They are saying it is business as usual, but that fund is down more than 15% year-to-date."