London open: Stocks bounce back with oil after Libyan port closures

After an initial drop the FTSE 100 Index recovered to trade slightly in the black, led by oil companies’ shares.

Over the weekend the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister, Suhail Al-Mazrouei, said the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be willing to withstand a drop in the price of crude to $40 per barrel before contemplating the need for an emergency meeting.

Mazrouei added that “we need to wait for at least a quarter” before considering an emergency meeting.

However, on Sunday Bloomberg reported that Libya was forced to declare “force majeure” at two of its ports, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf, which have a combined capacity to export 560,000 barrels of oil per day.

As of 08:51 the FTSE 100 was rising by eight points to 6,308.88 and front month Brent futures by 1.43% to hit $62.75 per barrel on the ICE.

That came after US stocks finished sharply lower last Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrials capping its largest weekly loss in three years, alongside a large drop in West Texas crude futures to below $60 per barrel.

Overnight, the Bank of Japan’s Tankan manufacturing sector index for the fourth quarter slipped to a reading of 12 from the previous month’s level of 13. Experts had expected it to remain unchanged.

Little economic data today, but markets to tread carefully

There is little on the economic agenda for Monday, except for the latest Confederation of British Industry’s total orders index for the month of December. Later, at 14:00, the US Federal Reserve will publish its latest figures on US industrial production.

However, the coming week is full of potential risk events, not least the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting and the first round of the Greek presidential elections, both of which are scheduled for Wednesday.

Traders will likely be watching to see how the US Treasury market reacts should the Fed decide to rescind its pledge to maintain interest rates low for a considerable period of time after the end of quantitative easing.

Greggs projects annual profits ahead of forecasts

Building material group CRH lifted 12p to 1460p after agreeing to sell its clay and concrete businesses in Britain and its clay business in the US to funds managed by Bain Capital Europe. The transaction, worth £414m, is expected to be completed in the first half of 2015, the company said, adding that it will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

Real estate investment trust Segro was 1.2p up at 371.5p as it agreed to sell a portfolio of six industrial estates to Orchard Street Investment Management for £113.8m. Segro said the portfolio of properties, all of which are located in the UK, generates a passing rent of £6.4m, rising to £7.4m on expiry of rent-free periods and allowing for rent guarantees, adding that price reflects a premium in excess of 10% compared to book value at 30 June.

Good weather helped baker Greggs to predict annual profits ahead of hopes, lifting it by 28.5p to 685p. Greggs said favourable trading with "generally helpful" weather enabled it to increase own shop like-for-like sales by 5.2% in the 24 weeks to 13 December.

Chemical firm Johnson Matthey gained 21p to 3222p after agreeing to sell its gold and silver refining business to Asahi Holdings for £118m in cash. The group said the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of March 2015. "The divestment of the Gold and Silver Refining business is in line with our long term strategy,” said group chief executive Robert MacLeod.

LGO Energy’s share price rose over 20% higher on Monday morning after it announced that the firm’s Goudron well in Trinidad had attained a flow rate of 1,085 barrels of oil per day. The London based Gas and Oil producer reported that over the last 48 hours the well had flowed at an average rate of 1,104 barrels of oil per day. The initial open-hole flow rate calculated for the well exceeded 6,000 barrels of oil per day.

techMARK 2,863.44 +0.12%
FTSE 100 6,337.74 +0.59%
FTSE 250 15,436.31 +0.39%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 388.40p +5.74%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,759.00p +3.53%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 701.50p +3.47%
BG Group (BG.) 842.80p +2.91%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,079.50p +2.36%
Aviva (AV.) 478.10p +2.16%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,025.50p +2.09%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,042.00p +1.76%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,344.50p +1.47%
Tesco (TSCO) 168.15p +1.45%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Sky (SKY) 889.00p -1.50%
Intu Properties (INTU) 324.90p -1.01%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,923.00p -0.72%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,033.00p -0.67%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,543.00p -0.66%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 283.00p -0.63%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,125.00p -0.60%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 898.50p -0.50%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,510.00p -0.49%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,632.00p -0.49%

FTSE 250 - Risers
EnQuest (ENQ) 36.66p +8.40%
Afren (AFR) 37.18p +7.96%
Soco International (SIA) 262.50p +5.63%
Premier Oil (PMO) 164.50p +4.91%
FirstGroup (FGP) 108.70p +4.22%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 118.90p +3.21%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 109.00p +2.93%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 303.80p +2.88%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 164.40p +2.81%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 582.00p +2.74%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 86.15p -5.64%
RPS Group (RPS) 209.40p -4.99%
Infinis Energy (INFI) 210.20p -4.24%
Evraz (EVR) 126.20p -3.59%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 54.00p -3.23%
Domino Printing Sciences (DNO) 621.50p -2.66%
COLT Group SA (COLT) 125.20p -2.42%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 243.80p -2.40%
IP Group (IPO) 214.30p -2.15%
Synthomer (SYNT) 218.20p -1.80%