Shell heads poor start for FTSE

Shares in oil giant Shell slipped today as a former employee queried deals the group allegedly made on future power prices.

Shell slipped 7p to 444½p as a report in the Financial Times said a former executive claimed bets made on US power prices could ‘‘prove worthless’’.

The slide came alongside falls from a number of heavyweight companies, and after an hour of trading the FTSE 100 Index was down 8.8 points at 4215.3 - reversing an early bounce when it rose 34 points.

The Footsie’s poor performance follows a tumultuous week, which saw shares plunge as continued bad news from the US hit sentiment.

A slide on Wall Street on Friday meant traders were expecting the Footsie to fall this morning.

Tom Hougaard, trader at City Index, said: ‘‘The sell-off continued on Friday on Wall Street and as shares prices continue to fall the risk of a panic rises. Nothing seems to be able to stop the rot.’’

Other fallers in early trading were rival oil giant BP, down 8p at 492p.

Telecoms stocks lower also lower, with Vodafone down 2p at 88¾p, mmO2 down ¾p at 45¾p and Cable & Wireless off 2¼p at 170¼p.

Among smaller stocks, Energis slumped 14%, off 0.15p to 0.95p, as the struggling telecoms group today said it was in ‘‘advanced talks’’ with its banks and bondholders about a financial restructuring of the business.

A restructuring is likely to see shareholders having virtually all their equity wiped out.

And software group Orchestream slumped more than 40%, down 2½p at 3¼p after revealing it had overstated last year’s revenues. The group is also axing 60 staff.