London market slips as Saudi updates dry up

With little detail flowing out of Saudi Arabia after drone attacks on a refinery and oil field over the weekend, traders in London were noticeably nervous as they awaited further details.

The FTSE 100 closed the day down 46.05 points at 7,321.41, a fall of 0.63%, but it was the oil prices that kept everyone interested.

A barrel of Brent Crude cost $67.43 as the markets closed, a rise of 12%, while a barrel of West Texas Intermediate Crude spiked 11.5% at $61.17.

The jump was smaller than the 20% rise seen in the first seconds of markets opening yesterday morning but, despite reassurances from the US and Saudi that they will tap into oil reserves to shore up markets, traders remained cautious.

As the day wore on, Saudi Arabia, which had previously said it could resume operations within days, said it would take weeks to fix. The Aramco site refines around 50% of the country’s crude oil, turning it into sweet crude, and 5% of the world’s production.

Oil-reliant companies, including airlines and cruise operators, suffered hardest from the fallout, while producers including BP and Shell enjoyed a boost to shares, with BP up 20.2p to 524.6p and Shell rising 43p to 2,322.5p.

In company news, Spire Healthcare failed to impress investors with shares down 3.3p at 121.8p, despite swinging to a first-half profit after it was buoyed by cost-cutting measures and increased numbers of NHS referrals.

The group reported a £9.6 million pre-tax profit for the six months to June, rising from a £2.2m loss in the same period last year.