FTSE 100 movers: Oil majors gush lower; Ocado rallies

London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.8% at 7,301.32 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.

Oil giants BP and Shell gushed lower as oil prices fell. Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil is hovering around $100, as traders assess the darkening clouds over the global economy and the expectation of weaker demand."

Elsewhere, utilities National Grid, Centrica and SSE were also under the cosh. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said concerns about a windfall tax on some of their profits have resurfaced.

"Due to the way that electricity prices are linked to the gas price, some companies are reaping huge profits given their electricity is being generated by renewables, which has a lower cost of generation," he said. "This is giving these companies a nice windfall, which governments are starting to cast an envious eye over."

On the upside, online supermarket Ocado was the standout gainer on the index a day after Ocado Retail - its joint venture with Marks & Spencer - opened its third site in East London for Zoom rapid delivery.

JD Sports also advanced, along with luxury fashion brand Burberry.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 738.80p 2.61%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 115.20p 2.58%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,786.50p 2.38%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 108.58p 2.07%
Rightmove (RMV) 615.80p 2.02%
3i Group (III) 1,229.00p 1.65%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,820.00p 1.60%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,484.00p 1.57%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 10,760.00p 1.56%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,379.00p 1.55%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BP (BP.) 430.45p -4.18%
National Grid (NG.) 1,079.00p -4.05%
Shell (SHEL) 2,247.00p -3.95%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,668.00p -2.75%
SSE (SSE) 1,666.00p -2.63%
Glencore (GLEN) 473.75p -2.11%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 820.40p -1.96%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 4,960.00p -1.63%
Centrica (CNA) 75.40p -1.52%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,158.00p -1.39%