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.