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London Stock Market report

By KUNA

London : Gloom on Wall Street, in New York, seen last Friday spread to world markets Monday as the Financial Times Index of the top 100 company shares on the London Stock Market followed Asian counterparts by opening more than one percent lower.

Investors dumped shares after a series of poor economic and corporate reports in the United States sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 2.5 percent ahead of last weekend, traders said.

Londons benchmark index was 83.9 points lower at 5800.4 in the first hour of trading this morning, with only a handful of stocks in positive territory.

They included banking group HSBC, which rose 11.5 pence to 777.5 pence after increasing full-year profits to 10 percent.

There was relief that the figure was in line with forecasts, even though bad debt charges jumped by 63 percents.

The rest of the UK banking sector was under pressure amid the economic worries in the United States, the traders added.

Royal Bank of Scotland fell 16.5 pence to 368.5 pence and Halifax Bank of Scotland slipped 25 pence to 578.5 pence.

Meanwhile, crude oil was little changed near 102 dollars a barrel today before an OPEC meeting this week where the producer group is expected to keep its output targets unchanged, analysts said.

Crude oil for April delivery was 102.10 dollars-a-barrel, up 26 cents, in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Britains North Sea benchmark Brent crude for April settlement was trading at 100.38 dollars-a-barrel, up 28 cents, on Londons ICE Futures Europe Exchange.