The FTSE 100 index has been dragged down by a steep drop for oil giant Shell as well as disappointing US jobs figures that showed employers took on few new workers in December.
The FTSE 100 was already trading lower before the data, but pushed further into the red after US nonfarm payroll jobs increased by just 1,000 in December, much worse than the 130,000 expected by the market.
By 2.02 p.m. today, the benchmark index was down 33.1 points, or 0.7 per cent at 4,461.1 points.
Volume totalled 1.8 billion shares. On Wall Street, equity index futures pointed to a 70-point drop on the Dow Jones industrial average.
Shell continued to weigh on the wider market, down 7.3 per cent and accounting for around half of the FTSE's drop, after the Anglo-Dutch oil titan cut its estimated proven oil and gas reserves by a fifth. Merrill Lynch downgraded its rating on Shell to "neutral" from "buy".
Fellow oil company BP also struggled to make headway, easing 1.5 per cent after predicting a dip in its key North American gas marketing margins.