FTSE steady on Monday

The FTSE 100 share index was almost unchanged as Monday came to an end, with the index going down only 3.5 points to 6,053.0 (down 0.06 per cent).

Banks all performed poorly with Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Standard Chartered all down 0.9-3.5 per cent.

Commodities however did well with oil companies BP and Royal Dutch Shell up 1.0 and 2.0 per cent respectively. Gas company BG group also rose 1.2 per cent.

Mining companies also performed well with Anglo American, Antofagasta, BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys, Vedanta Resources and Xstrata all rising 1.4-3.0 per cent.

Other winners of the day were ITV who rose 6.1 per cent, GlaxoSmithKline who put on 1.1 per cent, AstraZeneca up 0.8 per cent and British Energy who finished 2.4 per cent higher.

Some of the losers of the day were BSkyB, down 1.0 per cent and Friends Provident who fell 2.6 per cent.

Building companies also fared badly with British Land, Hammerson, Land Securities and Liberty International all falling 1.9-5.0 per cent.