City falters ahead of economy reports
The London market has closed down as nervy investors have pulled back ahead of a spate of economic updates due later in the week.
Unemployment, inflation and retail sales data will be published over the next few days, as well the minutes from the Bank of England's two interest rate meetings last month.
Traders will look to the minutes for an indication of when further cuts may be made.
Richard Hunter, at NatWest Stockbrokers, said: "This is quite an important week which will provide the bounce for the next move."
Ahead of the crucial data, investors were scaling back and the FTSE 100 Index has closed 78.2 points down at 5067.3 points.
The US markets have also failed to give the market any support, and by the close of trading in London the Dow Jones had lost nearly 100 points.
Trading on this side of the Atlantic was subdued for most of the day, with little corporate news to provide a lift.
Uncertainty about the outlook for the economy was hitting Rolls-Royce with speculation it may have to cut thousands of jobs affecting its shares.
Reports in Sunday's press that the tougher conditions could spark lay-offs fuelled nerves about its immediate prospects and shares have slid 6%, or 8p to 134½p. British Airways is also among the fallers as it dropped 5¼p to 197p.
Elsewhere, banks are dragging the market down with investors deciding to pocket recent gains. Lloyds TSB has fallen 9p to 695p, Royal Bank of Scotland has dropped 36p to £15.94, Barclays has eased 3% or 60p to £20.00 and HSBC has fallen 8p to 754p.
The fifth largest bank on the high-street, HBoS, slipped 28p to 765p, almost 100 points lower than when shares in the bank were first traded a month ago.
