London markets were on edge today after Wall Street opened lower, with a tumbling US dollar, soaring oil prices and bad news from General Motors fuelling the gloom.
The FTSE 100 stayed deep in the red this afternoon as embattled banks, more bad news from British Energy and a a fall for ITV outweighed rises for oil companies and miners.
The index of leading London-listed shares was down 55.4 points, or 0.86%, at 6,419.5 by 2.45pm. Wall Street also went into negative territory at the open, losing 108.5 points to 13,552.4, a fall of 0.79%.
Oil prices closing in on $100 added to the uncertainty, and General Motors rattled frayed nerves even further with news of its biggest ever quarterly loss. It fell nearly 5% in early US trading.
Back in the UK, ITV shares sank to their lowest since the merger between Carlton and Granada which created ITV plc. The fall of 3p, or 3.1%, to 92.8p came as the shares went ex-dividend and as it emerged that the broadcaster wanted satellite company BSkyB to sell its entire 17.9% stake in the business.
British Energy was the morning's biggest faller after it conceded it had no restart date for its nuclear reactors.
"We are in the process of developing the methodology to secure the return to service of the units. This is a complex issue and a timetable for the return to service of these units can only be formed when inspections and a full assessment of the situation have been completed," it said in a statement.
The shares fell 44p, or 7.9%, to 511p. They have lost more than 10% since British Energy announced that two of its nuclear power stations were out of service after a problem was discovered at one of its units. The two power plants affected are Hartlepool and Heysham which have two reactors each and together account for about 25% of British Energy's generating capacity.
High street chain Next was also headed sharply lower after it said "trading patterns remain extremely volatile with good sales in September giving way to a disappointing October."
Laying out its cloudy outlook, the retailer flagged up the belt-tightening effects of recent interest rate rises.
"Whilst we are happy that we have made significant improvements to our product ranges, marketing and stores we remain cautious about the consumer environment, with many customers now experiencing considerable year on year increases in their mortgage repayments," it said in a trading update.
The shares were down 92p, or 4.5%, at £19.60.
As the US dollar plunged against the pound and euro, oil prices pushed through $98 a barrel and helped Royal Dutch Shell but knocked heavy fuel users like British Airways, down 17p at 372p.
Royal Dutch Shell rose 9p to £20.18 but its rival BP was down 5.5p at 628p after it said its Norwegian unit will shut its Valhall oilfield from Thursday night due to a storm in the North Sea.
Metal prices were also headed higher and helped miners notch up some solid gains. Rio Tinto, up 81p at £44.15, was helped by ongoing rumours of a possible bid from BHP Billiton, up 7p at £17.82.
Anglo American rose 37p to £31.89 and Kazakhmys rose 11p to £14.20 but others slipped back as profit-taking set in.
Back among the main fallers of the day, banks were still under pressure from the latest bad news at the world's largest financial institution, Citigroup. Barclays fell 11p to 513p, Royal Bank of Scotland lost 17.7p to 438p and troubled Northern Rock slipped 4.8p to 159.3p.
