London investors, spooked by rising oil prices, were looking this week to the Bank of England's minutes from their latest rate-setting meeting to provide direction, analysts said. The FTSE 100 index of leading London shares closed at 4,933.3 points on Friday, down 48.7 points, or 0.98 percent, over the week, hitting its lowest level since the start of February.
"The markets were badly spooked this week by the surging oil price. There are more rises to come," warned analyst Samiul Siddique, of brokers Fyshe Horton Finney.
However, high oil prices did not mean bad news for the London stock market, other analysts said.
"Oil prices are staying up and we would interpret it as being very positive for the oil sector," said ABN Amro analyst Rolf Elgeti.
"The (oil) sector seems to be very attractively valued and that is going to continue for the next few week.
Meanwhile, airlines would not be hit because pricing power would allow many "to increase their prices to offset the input cost hikes from the (rising) oil price," Elgeti added.
On the economic data front, Wednesday will see the Bank of England (BoE) publish the minutes from the latest meeting of its rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.
That might indicate what is next for British interest rates, analysts said.
"Depending on what the BoE minutes say, the market will reassess the likelihood of further interest rate hikes and depending on that, may take a more bullish or a more bearish view," Elgeti added.
The BoE left its key interest rate unchanged at 4.75 percent for the seventh month in a row this month.
And on the other side of the Atlantic, markets were expecting a US interest rate increase next week when the Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday.
On the corporate front in London, the world's wealthiest football club, Manchester United, unveil their half-yearly results on Tuesday and British supermarket group Morrison publish annual results Wednesday.