The London stock market, which plunged almost ten percent this week on fears of another vicious global downturn, will focus again next week on worries of weak economic growth and eurozone debt contagion. London's FTSE 100 index shed 9.8 percent over the past week to finish at 5,246.99 points on Friday, wiping nearly £150 billion ($246 billion, 173 billion euros) off its total value over the last five days.
"There is a growing sense that there is real confusion over how to deal with underlying problems - namely the slowing pace of recovery, threat of recession and eurozone contagion spreading," said IG Index analyst David Jones.
The FTSE on Friday registered its lowest closing level since late August 2010 as traders wondered whether a fresh recession was in sight, and a fierce global equities sell-off showed no sign of abating.
"On 7 July, only 29 days ago, the FTSE 100 was etching just north of the 6,000-point mark," added Jones.
"This week, around $2.5 trillion has been wiped off the value of global markets and the FTSE has closed at 5,246 points.
"This weekend, analysts, investors and traders will all be asking themselves what has happened since early July."
Next week, meanwhile, the Bank of England updates its growth and inflation forecasts on Wednesday. There are also company results from InterContinental Hotels Group and TUI Travel. As well as the global economic concerns, the past week was dominated by banking sector earnings.
In Britain, Asia-focused banks HSBC and Standard Chartered posted strong profits, while Barclays unveiled a fall in net earnings and state-rescued lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group slumped into heavy losses.
As a whole, the country's banking sector also announced fresh jobs cuts totalling 35,000.
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