An opening dip on Wall Street is keeping London shares firmly in negative territory.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down around 10 points as energy stocks weigh on the back of falling oil prices. Crude fell around $1.5 a barrel to $76 as US figures showed a surprise rise in stocks of 3.7m barrels last week, compared to an expected decline. On top of that the International Energy Agency said supplies would be comfortable for the next five years.
So the FTSE 100 is down 44.87 points at the moment at 5202.11, with Royal Dutch Shell A shares 35p lower at £18.10. But BP - after its recent slide - has managed to recover slightly, up 2.85p at 337.05p.
Later come more US housing figures, and the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates, although the latter is not expected to cause many sparks.
