Libyan violence puts FTSE in red

Escalating violence in Libya helped to push the FTSE 100 Index into the red as oil prices soared to a two-and-a-half-year high amidst production fears.

With the US markets shut due to the President’s Day holiday, the continuing civil unrest in the Middle East dominated the news and weighed on investors’ minds, after leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam warned of the grim prospect of civil war.

The Footsie fell 68.2 points to 6014.8 by close of business on Monday, while the political unrest also saw oil prices leap to their highest since September 2008, with Brent crude oil jumping to 105 US dollars (£64) a barrel.

Investors turned to safer investments such as gold and the US dollar as the crisis unfolded, with sterling dropping to 1.62 against the greenback.

But the pound rose to 1.19 against the euro following fears about the strength of some European banks.

There were also concerns about UK banks, which lost ground following recent gains. Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group – due to publish full-year results on Thursday and Friday respectively – were the biggest fallers in the top flight, with losses of nearly 4%.

RBS lost 1.89p at 46.64p, while Lloyds dropped 2.75p to 66.55p as it also took a £500 million charge after reaching a deal with the Financial Services Authority for compensation after confusing some mortgage customers over the terms of their loans. Barclays was also down by 7.3p at 322.3p and HSBC off 18.4p to 704.4p.

But miners offered support, with silver miner Fresnillo up 43p at 1550p.

Oil giants initially surged on the inflated prices but fell back as the market fretted about whether the crisis overseas would affect supplies. Tullow Oil finished flat at 1376p.

However, BP failed to spark gains after announcing a 7.2 billion US dollar (£4.5 billion) deal to tap into the Indian oil and gas market through a tie-up with Reliance Industries. It ended the day down 1.45p at 491.55p.