Britain's FTSE-100 index closed weaker on Monday after a shock profit warning from food to detergents maker Unilever, although strength in oil majors BP and Shell helped keep the index above session lows.
Unilever, maker of Magnum ice cream and Dove soap, closed down 4.7 percent as it became the latest UK firm to warn on profits, halving its annual profit growth forecast as poor weather curbed ice cream sales and competition hit soap and washing powder.
A probe higher by oil prices to $46 a barrel, after Russia's Yukos suspended some oil exports to China, pushed BP up 1.7 percent and Shell 1.2 percent higher.
The gains in oils together added about 10 points to the FTSE-100, which closed down 11.5 points at 4,579.5, well above a session low of 4,562, but backing off from last Friday's two-year highs just above 4,600. Overall market volume was a slim 1.9 billion shares.
"You get a big stock like BP moving the way it did, the most heavily weighted stock in the market, and it covers up an awful lot of sins. I think the market should have been a fair bit lower today," said one trader.
Harpreet Kondal, a trader at Blue Index, also pinpointed the performance of the oils and said the market's rapid rise to recent highs might yet prove fragile.
"In our minds nothing fundamental has changed, we've still got supply and demand concerns with oil, we've still got geopolitical concerns," he said.
Midcap shares were also depressed, with the Midcap 250 closing down 0.3 percent but pharmaceuticals and media stocks stood out after a rash of merger activity.
Northern Irish drug maker Warner Chilcott jumped 15.3 percent after it received a bid approach worth around 1.5 billion pounds from a group of private equity houses.
Moving the other way in the same sector vaccine maker Acambis fell 8.6 percent after it cut revenue guidance, saying the US government would not complete an order for its smallpox vaccine.
Among media stocks, GWR Group and Capital Radio gained 9.3 percent and 6.5 percent respectively after confirming they were in talks on an all-share merger deal. In the same sector Chrysalis added 2.4 percent.
Shares hurt by the oil price rise included ICI, maker of Dulux paints, down 2.3 percent as the cost of its raw materials ticked up. Jet fuel consumer British Airways fell 1.5 percent.
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