Investors went shopping for festive bargains today as the last session before the UK Stock Exchange's Christmas break ended with the FTSE 100 Index marginally higher.

Sainsbury’s topped London’s leading shares index after revealing better-than-expected sales on an otherwise lacklustre day for the market.

The London market suffered its worst week since the financial crash of 2008 as traders continued to panic that the world economy is heading for recession.

London’s main market made progress despite a tough time for the retail sector after the owner of catalogue chain Argos issued a gloomy warning over high street trading.

Fashion house Burberry was the top faller in the FTSE 100 Index today as its stellar annual results were overshadowed by a bout of profit-taking.

Falling oil prices offered support for the FTSE 100 Index today but hefty declines among miners limited gains in the top tier.

BP shares were hit by another major sell-off today despite wider gains for the FTSE 100 Index.

BP overshadowed a decent start to the week for world markets as renewed dividend fears caused a fresh fall for the oil giant’s shares.

Halifax Bank of Scotland led a poor session for financial stocks today as shares returned below the company’s rights issue price of 275p a share.

A leading provider of engineering products for the oil and mining industries said today it expected profits to be “substantially ahead” of last year.

The London market is on the back foot after overnight falls on Wall Street and continued interest rate fears hit blue chip stocks.

Energy stocks led the FTSE 100 Index to a sixth consecutive day of losses today after the price of oil fell off its record highs.

A fall in the cost of oil from its recent record highs helped take the steam out of the FTSE 100 Index today.

British engineering group Weir showed a significant improvement to its order book today on the back of new products and a stronger economic outlook.

Engineering groups will feature heavily in the list of blue-chip companies updating the London market on their latest results this week.

HBOS has named George Mitchell as the new governor of Bank of Scotland following the retirement of Peter Burt.