FTSE drops as falling oil prices put pressure on energy stocks

For the third day in a row London’s FTSE 100 index closed lower despite trading up earlier in the day after a fall in the price of oil pushed the energy companies towards the bottom of the pack.

The FTSE 100 fell 6.62 points, or 0.09%, to end the day at 7,615.54. The biggest losers included some of the country’s biggest mining companies, but as oil prices dropped 1.4% to 77.63 dollars per barrel, energy giants were also hit.

“Today’s laggards on the FTSE 100 have been the oil majors with Shell and BP slipping back on the account of lower oil prices reversing the gains of yesterday on the back of Shell’s decent earnings numbers with BP due next week,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.

“On the upside Tesco and Sainsbury are outperforming after Morgan Stanley upgraded both on account that they are likely to benefit from volume growth in 2024, while Primark owner AB Foods was downgraded to equal weight.

“Also benefiting from broker upgrades is easyJet, raised to overweight at Barclays with a 700p price target, and Wizz Air, raised to equal weight by the same bank with a 2,200p price target.”

At the end of the day in Europe Frankfurt’s Dax index rose 0.35%, while the Cac 40 in Paris had closed up 0.05%.

In New York a little while after markets had closed in Europe the S&P 500 had gained 0.99%, while the Dow Jones was 0.19% higher.

On currency markets the pound was trading 0.92% lower against the dollar at 1.2627 and had dropped 0.11% against the euro at 1.1709.

In company news, shares in Superdry soared in a day when its boss said he is considering taking the troubled clothes seller private.

The company’s share price more than doubled, up 118.2% by the close of play. Shares were already trading up amid speculation over a possible deal earlier on Friday.

The company said that Julian Dunkerton, who co-founded the chain, “is engaged in discussions with potential financing partners” about possibly buying the business.

Elsewhere shares in YouGov dipped 1.66% even after the business told shareholders that it was confident it could meet expectations this year.

Despite a “challenging macro-economic environment” the polling company said that demand for its data products and research had remained stable.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Rolls-Royce, up 11.4p to 310.2p, Barclays, up 4.68p to 150.72p, Sainsbury’s, up 8p to 275.2p, Tesco, up 7.9p to 290.8p, and BT, up 2.35p to 111.35p.

The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Endeavour Mining, down 58p to 1,357p, Fresnillo, down 16.4p to 505.6p, Mondi, down 33.5p to 1,367.5p, Anglo American, down 43p to 1,835.6p, and Ocado, down 11.2p to 505p.