British investors, nursing heavy losses after a turbulent week, will track surging oil prices amid the latest results from energy titans BP and Royal Dutch Shell. The FTSE 100 index plunged by 3.01 percent or 202.8 points to end the week on Friday at 6,527.90 points.
The large drop, which came amid heavy falls on Wall Street, snapped a run of five weekly gains for the FTSE. Global markets have been rocked by oil prices, which smashed a series of record highs to climax at 90.07 dollars per barrel in New York on Friday.
Higher energy costs eat more into company profits and also raise concerns about slowing world economic growth - but the energy sector usually gets a boost. Next week, oil giants BP and Royal Dutch Shell unleash third-quarter results on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
Analysts expect both groups will post weak earnings due to falling output, weak gas prices and low refining margins.
Earlier, this month, BP had unveiled a major restructuring to breathe new life into the troubled energy giant, whose reputation has been tarnished by fatal safety errors and a boardroom scandal. The group will comprise two divisions - Exploration and Production, and Refining and Marketing - compared to three currently. BP is the world's third biggest energy company in terms of stock market capitalisation, behind number one and US titan ExxonMobil, and number two Royal Dutch Shell.
Elsewhere next week, investors will digest more earnings news from insurers Aviva and Prudential, miner BHP Billiton, pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline and media group Reuters.
Canadian group Thomson Corp announced plans in May to buy Reuters for 8.7 billion pounds (12.6 billion euros, 17.7 billion dollars). The agreed take-over is on course to complete before the end of 2007.