London shares suffer early fall
London shares are making a nervy start after the FTSE 100 Index fell in early trading.
After one hour, the blue-chip index was off 36.9 points at 4626.5 with oil and banking stocks once more suffering.
The falls came despite steady gains on the Dow Jones Industrial Average last night and forecasts of a slight climb from analysts in London.
Both BP and Shell continued their recent falls, with BP off a penny to 508½p and Shell down 7p to 459½p.
And high-street banks were again slipping as fears about the global economy continued to dominate investors' minds.
HSBC dropped 8p to 657p, Lloyds TSB was off 11p to 634p, Royal Bank of Scotland slipped 8p to £14.27 and HBoS fell 12p to 725p.
British Airways was also falling back into the red, slipping 3% or 5½p to 169p while Airbus partner BAE Systems eased 1¼p to 324¼p.
Another early faller was high-street chemist Boots after a disappointing trading update showing a slow second-quarter for the group.
Boots topped the fallers' board at one point, down 3% or 18p to 590½p.
In other corporate news, Lattice slipped 1½p to 153¼p after Ofgem's final price control proposals for its Transco gas pipeline division.
Outside the FTSE 100, Bloomsbury Publishing, home of Harry Potter, jumped 15p to 707½p after reporting a surge in half-year profits.
