FTSE down slightly
London's leading shares index closed in the red today after machinery firm Caterpillar and toys giant Hasbro offered more gloom from the US reporting season.
The FTSE 100 Index closed 13.2 points lower at 5882.9 after Caterpillar warned its full year revenues and income would be worse-than-expected, while My Little Pony and Transformers owner Hasbro also disappointed with a drop in sales.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.1% down at the time of the London close as the figures followed equally disappointing updates on Friday from McDonald's and General Electric.
High-profile results from Apple and Facebook are due later in the week.
Some encouragement for markets came from Spain, where a regional election victory for prime minister Mariano Rajoy was expected to make it easier for him to implement new austerity measures and put in a request for aid.
In European results, Philips doubled its earnings for the third quarter and Electrolux posted a bigger-than-expected rise in net profit.
The pounds was down against the euro at 1.22 as the positive sentiment on the continent lifted the single currency. Sterling was up against the US dollar at 1.60.
Miners and banking stocks were ahead in London, however, with Randgold Resources up by 3% or 200p to 7615p. Among the banks, Barclays rose 1.6p to 235.4p and Lloyds Banking Group added 0.3p to 40.8p.
In a session with little in the way of major corporate news, shares in BP were 1.5% lower after it finally confirmed a deal with Rosneft about selling its 50% stake in Russian joint venture TNK-BP.
The announcement from the UK energy company came after its board backed proposals for a sale worth just under $27bn (€20.7bn), paid in a combination of cash and shares in Rosneft.
BP, which formed the TNK-BP joint venture in 2003, said the agreement represented an "important day" for the company as it provided it with a sustainable stake in Russia's energy future. Shares were down 6.9p to 443.5p.
Temporary power supplier Aggreko was the biggest faller in the top flight after HSBC downgraded the stock and said it was concerned about growth prospects, particularly in the company's international power projects business. Shares were 64p lower at 2073p.
Sausage skin maker Devro was down nearly 4% in the FTSE 250 Index after it said full-year operating profits were likely to miss forecasts due to higher input costs and currency movements. Shares were 13.6p lower at 322.4p, even though it said sales volumes continued to grow across most markets.
The biggest Footsie risers were Randgold Resources up 200p at 7615p, Aviva ahead 4.4p at 341.6p, Fresnillo up 24p at 1916p and Imperial Tobacco ahead 24p at 2310p.
The biggest Footsie fallers were Aggreko down 64p at 2073p, Wolseley off 68p at 2661p, Petrofac down 37p at 1578p and Experian off 24p at 1047p.
