Footsie closes flat, dragged by oil prices

Market report Emma Newlands

Commodity stocks weighed on the FTSE 100 Index as oil prices tumbled, signalling investor disappointment over reports that Opec had failed to agree to deepen production cuts to fight the global glut.

Oil prices were down more than 3 per cent in afternoon trading at $52.12 per barrel, sending BP down 5.4p to 473.1p and Royal Dutch Shell’s “B” shares down 11p to 2,161p.

It dragged on the FTSE 100, which ended the day flat, up only 2.81 points at 7,517.71.

Markets were reacting to reports from the Opec meeting in Vienna suggesting that oil production cuts first introduced in January had been extended, but not deepened, raising fears that oversupply would continue. Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said: “Opec members had a chance… but bottled it.”

Data showing a downward revision to UK gross domestic product growth from 0.3 per cent to 0.2 per cent for the first quarter of 2017 sent sterling into the red.

Pets at Home rose 3.4p to 164p after reporting a 5.8 per cent jump in annual pre-tax profits to £95.4 million.

Petrofac plunged by a whopping 184.2p to 430.8p as the oil services firm suspended its chief operating officer Marwan Chedid after a corruption and bribery probe by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 included 3I Group, up 31p to 871.5p, Easyjet ,up36pto 1,380p, and Royal Mail, up 9.1p to 438.1p.

The biggest fallers included Anglo American, down 26.5p to 1,057.5p, DCC, down 110p to 7,410p, and Experian, down 20p to 1,646p. Investors focused on a 3.9 per cent rise in retail sales in the 15 weeks to 28 April, pointing to a small recovery from the prior quarter at the business. Shares in Daily Mail and General Trust tumbled after it posted an 11 per cent fall in underlying halfyear operating profits to £100 million.