Mining stocks and British Energy led the FTSE 100 down as the global sell-off which devastated Wall Street on Friday hit London.

British Energy was off nearly 9 per cent to 528.5p after warning of yet more problems with its boilers at Hartlepool which may delay its re-opening and has forced it to shut down three sister reactors at Hartlepool and Heysham.

The miners lost ground on profit-taking following massive rises in the past few weeks and on a slumping dollar. Citigroup added to the gloom by declaring that now was the time to take profits from mining stocks and cautioned that "further earnings momentum in the sector is beginning to abate".

It downgraded Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Vedanta, Kazakhmys and Rio Tinto to hold from buy. These stocks lost 4.2 per cent, 3.8 per cent, 4.25 per cent 3.3 per cent and nearly 4 per cent respectively. The price of copper also fell from recent highs, as demand from China appeared to be weakening and copper miner Antofagasta was the worst hit, down 5.2 per cent at 776p.

The FTSE 100 was down 83.1 points at 6444.8 by 11.15am.

Standard Life was a strong faller, off 2.7 per cent at 277.25p on talk that it would launch a raised bid for Resolution this week.

Resolution, helped by talk of a bid from Standard and Hugh Osmond's Pearl Assurance, was one of the few stocks unscathed by the sell-off, unchanged at 722p

Scottish & Newcastle, which is also expected to receive a bid from Carlsberg and Heineken this week, lost 5.5p to 761.5p following its big ramp up last week when the predator brewers revealed they were considering an offer.

Banks were also badly hit on resurfacing of credit crunch fears. Barclays was off 2.3 per cent at 576.5p and HBOS lost 11p to 824p. But Northern Rock was one of the few blue-chip gainers, up 5.2p at 191.9p.

Pearson was also up 1.3 per cent at 775p after the publisher upgraded expectations for its US education business.

Other gainers were stocks seen as a safe haven from the credit crunch such as Sage Group, the accounting software firm, up 2.25p at 239.25p and Vodafone, up 1.2p at 176.2p.

Revived bid talk and a strong upgrade from Investec helped Enodis to become the top performer of the FTSE 250, up 14 per cent at 215p.

Investec said it had been impressed with the food equipment manufacturer's new products at a show in the US last week and that the recent sale of Aga's foodservice arm would value Enodis at 220p if it was sold at the same multiple of earnings, but that Enodis was a far better quality business. It also said any bidder would now have to pay more than the highest price offered by one of three former bidders last year.

Aga Foodservice, one of the former bidders, lost 5 per cent to 404p after Citigroup downgraded its rating to hold. It has been buoyed by hopes of a bid from Ed Truell's Pension Corporation but there are now fears he will not pay a premium.

Burren Energy, the oil explorer, jumped more than 2 per cent to £11.94 after Korean National Oil Corporation said it was considering a bid.