Decisions by oil-producing nations in Vienna helped save London’s FTSE 100 from a sharp fall on Wednesday as BP and Shell shielded the index from the malaise seen elsewhere around the world.
– Advertisement –
The index was down 0.5% by the closing bell as both major London oil companies saw their shares rise more than 1%.
– Advertisement –
It was down 34 points at 7,053.
It came after OPEC+, a group of oil-producing countries that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided to sharply cut production.
– Advertisement –
Equities have faltered after two days of gains, but OPEC’s move to slash a slab of daily oil output has resulted in a rise in crude oil prices
The move has been taken to boost oil prices, which have been falling recently.
It will help the top lines of these countries, but it will also affect US and European oil companies.
As a result, the oil price that BP and Shell sells is likely to be slightly higher.
“Equities have faltered after two days of gains, but OPEC’s move to close a slab of daily oil output has propelled crude oil prices,” said Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG.
“Equity has been eating into gains of the past two sessions, with OPEC’s decision to cut large output not helping buyers keep control.
“The prospect of exhausting two million barrels of daily oil production again raises the inflation specter, just as the market expects oil prices to at least calm down.
“Of course, given the high volatility at this point and stocks are still firmly above where they were two days ago, this bear market bounce is looking very volatile after only 48 hours.”
But the decision was immediately less impressive than OPEC expected, Mr Beauchamp said.
The price of Brent crude was up less than 2% to $93.57 a barrel soon after the market closed in Europe.
The German DAX index in Europe closed 1.3% and the CAC 40 in Paris down 1%. Wall Street’s S&P 500 was down 1.3% and the Dow Jones was down 1%.
At the same time the pound was trading at a little less than $1.13 and a little over euro 1.14.
In the company’s news, Tesco said its half-year profit fell as shoppers tightened their belts by choosing cheaper products from supermarkets.
The business said it was facing “significant” inflation and warned that annual earnings would be toward the low end of previous expectations.
The underlying retail revenue is expected to be between £2.4 billion and £2.5 billion. Supermarkets previously expected the high end to potentially reach £2.6 billion.
Shares were down half a percent on Wednesday.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Shell, up 40.5p to 2,378.5p, AutoTrader, up 8.6p to 544.4p, Haleon, up 4.25p to 278.45p, BP, up 5.7p to 460.2p, and the London Stock Exchange, up 72p to 7,790p.
Ocado, down the most on the FTSE 100, was down from 50.9p to 456.1p, followed by, St James’s Place, down from 53p to 1,029p, Unite Group, down from 41p to 839p, and Sainsbury’s, down 8p to 172.2. Were. P.
