Britain's top share index ended 0.9 percent lower on Monday, led by declines in British Airways shares as UK stocks followed the general global decline in equities. The FTSE 100 ended down 0.94 points, or 57.5 percent at 6,058.7, having passed below the 6,000 level in early trade and after dropping nearly 5 percent last week.
Some 94 of the index's shares ended in negative territory, tracking Asian stocks which fell as investors fretted over an unwinding in the carry trade, or bets on riskier assets financed by borrowing the yen. The dollar and the euro both fell to three-month lows against the Japanese currency on Monday.
British Airways dropped 6.6 percent, having plummeted as much as 10 percent during the session after the European Union and the United States came to an agreement opening the transatlantic aviation market, and a newspaper reported on potential strikes at the airline's subsidiary GB Airways.
European stocks pared some losses, however, after Wall Street edged higher as some investors took the opportunity to buy beaten-down shares after last week's sell-off. "I can't say with my hand on my heart that we're through it, but what looked, at first thing this morning, to be a pretty bad outlook, has turned around a bit," said Jeremy Batstone, head of research at Charles Stanley. "I don't think we're out of the woods," he added.
Oil majors BP and Shell shed 1 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively, as US crude oil prices fell more than a $1 to below $61 a barrel after the slide on Asian and European stock markets spilled over into commodities. Miners were also battered, with Lonmin losing 3.1 percent, Vedanta off 3 percent and Antofagasta shedding 2.7 percent as metal prices weekend.
Outperforming the index, however, Royal & Sun Alliance jumped 3.9 percent after the insurer said it had completed the disposal of its troubled US operation to Arrowpoint Capital Corp. Also on the upside, HSBC, Europe's largest bank, posted results that were slightly weaker than analysts had expected, but the stock gained 1.1 percent as its sour loan problem was milder than feared. But other banks suffered, with Barclays falling 1.1 percent, HBOS losing 0.5 percent and Lloyds down 0.4 percent.