RTRS: FTSE inches down as econ gloom sidelines investors
* FTSE 100 down 0.1 percent
* Banks weighed down by weak house price data
* Energy, miners up despite weaker commodity prices
By Simon Falush
LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Britain's top share index edged lower early on Monday as weak data kept investors wary of buying heavily sold stocks, while they drew little comfort from pledges from leaders of the Group of 20 nations to stimulate growth.
By 0905 GMT the FTSE 100 .FTSE was down 3.64 points at 4,229.33 after closing down 1.5 percent on Friday.
Leaders of the world's largest 20 economies meeting in Washington over the weekend, agreed on a host of steps to rescue the global economy from the financial crisis.
But they left it to individual governments to tailor their response to their circumstances.
"There were lots of nice words, but there was not significant concrete action, that the markets could look to," said Keith Bowman, equity strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown.
Gloom on the UK economy deepened further as data from property website Rightmove data showed increasingly desperate sellers slashed asking prices for homes in England and Wales by 2.9 percent in November. [ID:nLD755943]
Britain will suffer its sharpest economic contraction in almost two decades next year and the number of people out of work could rise to nearly 3 million by 2010, the Confederation of British Industry said. [ID:nLE563822] Oil CLc1 was hovering near its lowest in almost two years weighed down by concerns about global demand with Japan unexpectedly sinking into recession in the third quarter.
Energy stocks gained however, aided by a Goldman Sachs note which upped estimates and target prices for the oil majors.
BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rose 1.7 percent, Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) was up 0.2 percent while Cairn Energy gained 3.8 percent.
"We've got a case of the Monday morning blues, with Japan moving into a technical recession not aiding the general mood," said Bowman.
Similarly, miners were in positive territory, defying lower metals prices.
