London ends on gloomy note

December 31, 2001 Posted: 1252 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- London stocks ended a shortened session in negative territory on Monday, the last day of a disappointing year for investors.

London's FTSE 100 dipped 0.5 percent to 5,217.4, with Europe's biggest airline British Airways (BAY), down 2.7 percent, and Shell Transport & Trading (SHEL), which owns 40 percent of the world's second-largest oil company, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, down 2 percent.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index plunged almost 16 percent this year.

Banking stocks also came under pressure amid renewed concerns about the economic crisis in Argentina. The country's interim president Adolfo Rodriguez Saa throwing Argentina into a fresh round of economic and political crisis.

HBOS (HBOS) , formed by the merger of the Bank of Scotland and the Halifax, lost 2.3 percent and Lloyds TSB (LLOY) lost 1.1 percent.

HSBC Holdings (HSBA), the London-based International bank, declined 1.1 percent after announcing the acquisition of an 8 percent stake in the Bank of Shanghai.

Other European markets were closed on the eve of 2002. The CAC 40 benchmark index in Paris has fallen 22 percent this year, while the Xetra DAX has lost 20 percent.

In the U.S. on Friday, stocks held onto a week of gains amid signs that the economy's worst days have passed. The Nasdaq composite index rose 0.5 percent to 1,987.26, while the Dow Jones industrial average gained 5.68 points to end the session at 10,136.99.

Wall Street was expected to open little changed later on Monday. S&P 500 index futures edged up 0.2 points to 1,159.5 on the Globex trading system, while fair value, a measure that takes account of interest costs and dividend payments, was calculated at 1,162.01.