On Friday, Britain's key share index slipped by 1.5%, mainly on concerns over the fragile health of the global economic recovery, as the US employment data managed to disappoint quite a few. ICAP, on the other hand, plunged after warnings on earnings.

ICAP, which is the world largest and top-ranked inter-dealer broker, led the decliners' scoreboard, losing about 20% of its value after the company announced that complete year earnings would most probably miss the expectations pegged by analysts.

The FTSE 100 .FTSE ended the Friday trading session after losing 78.39 points, at 5.060.92, recording a weekly decline of 2.5%, its fourth consecutive weekly fall. The index has now lost about 6.5% of its value in 2010. "This is a fear-driven fall. Jitters have spread as investors continue to fret over sovereign debt worries in Europe. Hopefully this will be short-lived", said Jimmy Yates, head of equities at CMC Markets.

All major stocks, including energy shares, major bank stocks and miners, tumbled, as did the country's currency.