Sector movers: Oil stocks track crude prices lower ahead of stockpile data

Oil producers and energy services stocks were hit on Thursday by a tumble in the price of crude on the back of speculation that US government data will show that oil stockpiles rose to a record high last week.

Industry group, The American Petroleum Institute, said on Wednesday that stockpiles of crude in the States increased by 14.3m barrels last week. This was well ahead of the analyst forecast for a 3.2m rise and represented the biggest week-on-week increase on record.

Official data from the Energy Information Administration on Thursday is currently predicted to show a 3.7m-barrel increase last week, though the market now believes there is upside risk to this figure.

Brent future for April delivery was down 3.5% at $58.41 a barrel, having earlier reached a low of $57.80. The commodity was extending falls after reaching $63 on Tuesday.

West Texas Intermediate oil fell 4.1% to $50.01 a barrel, dropping below the $50 mark earlier in the session.

Meanwhile, there were reports that Saudi Arabia, the biggest producing nation in OPEC, could be lifting output to nearly 10m barrels per day.

London's blue-chip oil and gas stocks were under pressure in afternoon trade, such as Tullow Oil, Shell, BG Group and BP.

Smaller producers including Soco International, Premier Oil and Ophir Energy were also registering losses, along with oil services groups Hunting, Amec Foster Wheeler, Wood Group and Petrofac.

Top performing sectors so far today
General Industrials 4,380.71 +1.71%
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Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,866.33 -2.47%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 17,534.93 -2.24%
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