Oil majors are boosted by crude price recovery
Casual observers might assume the Middle East is key to the oil market but anyone tracking developments will know the big energy player these days is the us.
Now the world’s largest oil producer thanks to a boom in fracking over the last decade, america’s stockpiles often dictate the price of a barrel of Brent crude.
In a boost for traders yesterday, the us reported domestic supplies of the black stuff had fallen for the first time in three weeks.
The drop of 2.7m barrels sent prices up as much as 2pc and put Brent crude back above the $60 a barrel mark, because consumers in the us will have to buy extra.
a change in the oil price usually has a knock-on effect for major drilling companies worldwide – which for Brits often also means their pension pots can take a hit or gain a few more pennies.
shares in london’s energy behemoths tracked the price move yesterday, with the largest FTsE 100 company, Royal Dutch Shell, rising 1.8pc, or 40p, to 2309.5p, and BP climbing 1.1pc, or 5.5p, to 498.85p. Their increase helped nudge up the Footsie. shrugging off the wider environment of trade wars, possible recessions and Europe’s political turmoil, the blue-chip index had a lighter day and closed up 1.1pc, or 78.97 points, to 7203.97. The mid-cap
FTSE 250 also rose 1.1pc, or 199.66 points, to 19,207.75.
as well as being bolstered by the rosier crude price, shares in Premier Oil bumped up 3.1pc, or 2.1p, to 72.26p, ahead of its half-year results this morning.
The market is keen for details about production at its North sea Catcher field, as well as progress on wells in Mexico. and fellow mid-cap energy group Tullow Oil was bolstered by a stock upgrade from ‘speculative buy’ to ‘buy’ from Canaccord Genuity.
The analysts say the company’s success last week with a well drilled off the coast of Guyana in south america has opened a ‘fresh and much-needed growth front for the company’.
Its share price rose 4.3pc, or 8.9p, to 215.6p by the close last night.
NMC Health, a united arab Emirates-based private healthcare group; and CRH, the Irish building materials group, also rose ahead of their interim results today. NMC closed up 4.1pc, or 76p, to 1936p, while CRH jumped 2.5pc, or 65p, to 2670p.
Hostelworld plummeted 9.5pc, or 15.4p, to 146.4p after its revenue slumped on disappointing summer bookings.
Turnover fell to £35m in the six months to June, down from £39m in the same period a year earlier. There were 3.7m bookings across the company, down from 3.8m in the same period of 2018.
Mining giant BHP slid as the price of cash-cow commodity iron ore fell to its lowest levels since March, shedding $5.50 to hit around $83 per tonne.
In what can best be described as either a self-fulfilling prophecy or a bizarre market version of the chicken-and-egg debate, the fall in BHP’s shares was triggered by the iron ore price fall, which was itself triggered by BHP warning on Tuesday that prices were likely to fall over the next year.
shares in the world’s biggest mining company dropped by 1.2pc, or 21p, to 1713.8p. ailing shopping centre owner
Hammerson named James lenton as its new finance boss. He will join the company in mid-september from insurance and investment group aIG.
The board change at Hammerson – which is fighting to ride out the tumult hitting the retail sector – comes after the firm was targeted by activist us hedge fund Elliott advisors, which holds a 5.5pc stake.
Traders believe lenton will receive a warm welcome, with shares rising 1.5pc, or 3p, to 209p.