The London market dipped sharply as strong US jobs data raised the prospect of another American rate hike.

The US economy added 151,000 jobs in the traditionally weak month of January, helping to push the country's unemployment rate down to 4.9%, according to official data.

The FTSE 100 Index was down 50.7 points to 5848.1 because even though new January jobs were below December's 292,000 total it takes US joblessness below the psychologically-important 5% mark and raises calls for another rate hike.

Germany's Dax was down 1%, while the France's Cac 40 was 0.7% lower. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 200 points in early trading.

Higher borrowing costs do not favour investors. The US Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in almost a decade in December.

Trustnet Direct market analyst Tony Cross said: "With unemployment in the world's largest economy now below 5%, it's going to fuel hawkish calls at the Federal Reserve and the prospect of higher borrowing costs is invariably bad news for stocks."

Another torrid week for global stocks saw the FTSE 100 Index fall 3.8%, more than 230 points, on fears of a slowdown in emerging markets and sliding oil prices.

The pound was down a cent against the dollar at just under 1.45 after the US jobs data. Sterling was flat against the euro at 1.30.

In stocks, BG Group - which is close to finalising a £34 billion takeover by blue-chip giant Royal Dutch Shell - delivered a full-year pre-tax profit of three billion US dollars (£2 billion) in 2015, steering the business away from a 2.3 billion US dollar pre-tax loss (£1.6 billion) the year before.

The tumbling cost of crude has put significant pressure on BG's performance. Brent Crude was little changed at 34.46 US dollars, but it is more than 70% below its peak in the summer of 2014.

BG said exploration and production was up 20% in the fourth quarter to 757,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day compared to the same quarter in 2014. The boost was driven by growth in Australia, Brazil and Norway.

BG Group shares lifted 2.5p to 1060p, with oil giant Shell up 11.5p to 1,536.5p.

Heavyweight miners were among the highest risers, as they built on Thursday's gains.

Anglo American was the strongest performer in the top flight as it climbed almost 11% or 35.1p to 363.4p, while Glencore grew more than 2% or 2.5p to 102.2p.

In the FTSE 250, online takeaway group Just Eat saw its share price value lift 5% or 19.4p to 379.4p after it announced a string of global acquisitions.

The company has snapped up four food businesses in Spain, Italy, Brazil and Mexico for 125 million euros (£95 million) from Rocket Internet and foodpanda.

The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were Anglo American up 35.1p to 363.4p, Antofagasta up 16p at 446.3p, Standard Chartered up 15.6p at 453.1p and Burberry up 33p at 1218p.

The biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 Index were Berkeley Group down 178p at 3390p, Inmarsat down 48p at 1020p, Persimmon down 74p at 1965p and Sky down 38p at 1028p.