Sector movers: Oil&Gas falls to the bottom of the pile

Oil-related issues were at the bottom of the pile on Monday after Saudi oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih, said his country had no intention of repeating a scenario such as the 1973 oil embargo, when the Kingdom weaponised crude supplies for political purposes.

The Saudi official's remarks came close on the heels of calls from some US politicians for sanctions to be imposed on Riyadh in the wake of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which in turn had prompted speculation that the Kingdom might respond by restricting its supplies of oil.

Indeed, shortly after news of Khashoggi's killing broke, followed by widespread condemnation from around the globe, reports had surfaced of veiled threats from some Saudi officials.

His remarks saw crude oil futures retreat at the start of the week, although by 1633 BST front month Brent futures were slipping by just 0.113% to $79.69 a barrel on the ICE, having earlier plumbed an intraday low of $78.99 per barrel.

Nevertheless, Al-Falih also correctly pointed to the fast-dwindling excess capacity among the world's major oil producers.

"We have relatively limited spare capacities and we are using a significant part of them," the oil minister said.

"For now we in Saudi Arabia have 1.3 mln bpd of spare capacity, UAE has assured me they have over 200,000 bpd remaining. But we do not know what is going to happen in other countries."

Unsurprisingly, Oil&Gas and Oil service sector stocks both came under selling pressure.

Cairn Energy was the worst of the lot among the former, after analysts at Jefferies reportedly downgraded its shares to "underperform". Nevertheless, the same broker had reportedly upgraded Tullow Oil and revised its target on Premier Oil higher.

Also acting as a drag on oil futures, according to Bloomberg, at the weekend the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation, Mustafa Sanalla, said BP and Eni would likely restart exploratory drilling near the Tunisian border during the first quarter.

Following their 8 October agreement with NOC, and thanks to the facilities which already existed in the area, they would also be able to ramp-up their production more quickly, he said.

That, Sanalla reportedly said, might set the stage for production to rise by "hundreds of thousands of barrels" per day.

Possibly weighing on oil prices as well, on 19 October, Baker Hughes reported that the number of US oil rigs in operation had risen by four over the latest week to reach 873.

Top performing sectors so far today

Leisure Goods 7,856.65 +2.77%

Technology Hardware & Equipment 935.42 +1.89%

Tobacco 38,290.01 +1.70%

Industrial Transportation 2,637.42 +1.03%

Personal Goods 35,498.75 +0.97%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 14,337.64 -1.97%

Mobile Telecommunications 3,363.48 -1.55%

Oil & Gas Producers 9,244.72 -1.13%

Industrial Engineering 11,050.38 -1.09%

Forestry & Paper 20,167.81 -1.08%