BP share drop helps to drag Footsie down

The pound gained ground on the mounting prospect of a December general election, but oil giant BP helped to drag London’s blue-chip share index into the red.

Sterling was 0.3 per cent higher at $1.289 and 0.1 per cent ahead at €1.16 after Jeremy Corbyn said Labour would back an election.

It was a more disappointing day on the FTSE 100 amid a 4per cent fall for BP, with the premier index closing down 25.02 points at 7,306.26.

It brought an abrupt end to Monday’s optimism in the City on news that the UK would not be leaving the European Union on 31 October.

David Madden, analyst at CMC Markets, said: “The Conservatives are polling well ahead of the Labour Party, but traders have learned not to rely on opinion polls given the events of the past three years, hence why equities are down.”

Over on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 30 points higher at the time of close in London thanks to continuing optimism over the Us-china trade spat.

In London, blue-chip heavyweight BP was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 after it revealed a near-40 per cent fall in underlying replacement cost profits over the third quarter.

Housebuilders were also in the red on the latest downbeat report on the property market.charles Church owner Persimmon led declines on the top tier, down 33p to 2327p.

Book publisher Bloomsbury was another suffering declines, off 7p at 253p, after it saw half-year pre-tax profits fall by nearly a fifth after a weak start to 2019 for new releases.