Wood Group’s revival continues after digging out further savings

EASING fears over Wood Group’s troubled takeover of Amec Foster Wheeler helped the oilfield services company’s surge spill over into a second day.

Integration costs arising from the £2.2bn deal had helped drag Wood Group to a $30m (£23m) loss last year but its management vowed yesterday to deliver even higher savings.

Morgan Stanley took the company off its “underweight” list following its interim results, arguing that Wood Group had addressed the market’s concerns. Its analysts told clients that they had been pleasantly surprised by its debt reduction and argued that it could now make a “significant step forward in normalising the balance sheet”. Soothed by promises of a 24pc increase in savings from the takeover, they added it was “encouraging” that the integration of Amec was “so advanced”.

Morgan Stanley’s upgrade to “equal-weight” helped Wood Group extend its post-results surge, lifting it a further 46.4p to 758.4p, a 15pc rally over two days.

Meanwhile, a fifth straight day of climbing crude prices boosted oil stocks to the top of London’s leaderboard. A much larger than expected drawdown in US oil stockpiles boosted

Brent crude as much as 3pc to $74.77 per barrel, bringing its five-day gain to 6.3pc. Oil minnow Enquest climbed 1.7p to 42p, while North Sea rival Premier Oil jumped 4.3p to 121.5p. Elsewhere, Provident

Financial rallied 16.2p to 686.4p after Berenberg handed the doorstep lender an upgrade to “neutral” on fading regulatory risks. It argued that rules on the credit card market outlined by the City watchdog were “not as restrictive as we thought they could be”.

However, it warned clients that the recovery in its troubled home credit division is behind schedule.

Global miner Rio Tinto lagged its rivals despite Liberum arguing that demand for steel should be supported by the Chinese property market.

In an upgrade to “hold”, Richard Knights explained that property investment has been more closely linked to steel consumption than sinking infrastructure spending in China. Rio Tinto edged up 30p to £36.97.

Building supplies maker

Grafton beating City expectations at the interim stage boosted its shares 18p to 794.5p. Pre-tax profit jumped 19pc to £90m in its first half.

A rally in the FTSE 100’s oil and mining giants helped the index inch up 8.54 points to 7,574.24.

Meanwhile, in the US, market sentiment was dampened by Donald Trump’s former lawyer pleading guilty to breaking campaign finance laws.

Gains were also curbed by caution ahead of crunch trade talks between the US and China.