FTSE slips into red as oil giants swing lower
The FTSE 100 moved 0.1%, or 7.29 points lower to finish at 7,599.99.
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Your support makes all the difference.London stocks tipped lower on Monday as early gains vanished after the UK’s oil majors swung lower at the end of the trading session.
The top markets initially opened higher as they followed Friday’s strong gains with another robust performance but saw sentiment cool as the day went on.
The FTSE 100 moved 0.1%, or 7.29 points lower to finish at 7,599.99.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: “Equities have found it difficult to maintain the atmosphere of Friday’s rally, while oil prices have faded from their intraday highs.
“Aside from tech stocks, which seem to go up regardless of the prevailing market conditions, indices have struggled to make headway and keep up the pace from Friday’s rally.”
BP and Shell opened higher after a spike in oil prices after Saudi Arabia confirmed plans to cut oil production by one million barrels a day to prop up prices.
However, reaction to the news weakened as trading continued and gains in the oil price softened.
Mr Beauchamp added: “The last Opec production cut produced such a durable rally in crude prices that the body decided to try again, though it looks like the effect is even less pronounced than the last time around.”
Brent crude oil increased by 1.69% to 77.42 US dollars per barrel on Monday.
Elsewhere, Europe’s other major markets had more significant slumps as traders sold stocks in response to gains from Friday trading.
The Dax fell by 0.54% and the Cac 40 decreased by 0.96% at the close as a result.
Stateside, trading began cautiously although much of the focus was on Apple’s share price, which struck a new record high above 183 dollars.
Meanwhile, sterling underperformed despite a resilient showing for the services sector in the latest industry PMI figures for May.
The pound was down 0.08% to 1.244 US dollars and down by 0.14% to 1.160 euros at market close in London.
In company news, Asos shares leapt in value after it was reported that the troubled online fashion firm had received a £1 billion takeover approach from a firm backed by China’s Alibaba.
The retailer was approached by Turkish online fast fashion firm Trendyol in late December, according to a report in the Sunday Times.
Asos, which was recently booted out of the FTSE 250, saw shares improve by 24.8p to 375.2p at the close.
Guinness manufacturer Diageo saw shares drift on Monday after it confirmed the appointment of interim chief executive with immediate effect while its existing chief undergoes emergency surgery.
Debra Crew will take the helm at the booze giant from July 1, when Sir Ivan Menezes will be retiring after a decade in the top job. Shares finished down 40.5p at 3,332p.
Elsewhere, Tui gained ground after brokers from Deutsche Bank put the travel operator on its buy list. Tui was up 6p at 534p.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Abrdn, up 6.5p to 210p, Vodafone, up 2.29p to 77.92p, London Stock Exchange, up 168p to 8,662p, Airtel Africa, up 2p to 124.7p, and United Utilities, up 15.5p to 1,052p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Ocado, down 14.8p to 343.4p, Endeavour Mining, down 82.0p to 2,096p, NatWest Group, down 6.5p to 258.5p, Mondi, down 31.5p to 1,259.5p, and Rightmove, down 10.8p to 526p.