Sector movers: Glencore leads resource stock recovery

Resource stocks continued their recovery run on Thursday, led higher by Glencore’s trading update.

However, both major indices stayed in negative territory. The FTSE 100 closed 0.63% or 38.63 points lower at 6,088.05, while the FTSE 250 ended 0.35% or 59.60 points at 17,080.25.

Oil futures tumbled further with OPEC confirming on Thursday its production for November stood at 31.7m barrels per day, well above its published quota cap of 30m bpd.

In a scheduled monthly data release, the cartel revealed crude output rose by 230,000 bpd to 31.7m bpd last month and hiked its oil demand growth forecast for the current year by 30,000 bpd to 1.53m bpd.

However, OPEC left its 2016 growth forecast unchanged at 1.25m bpd. The organisation also predicted supply from non-OPEC members was likely to fall faster in 2016 than previously estimated, having grown faster than forecast this year.

At 1716 GMT, the Brent front month futures contract was down a further 0.87% or 35 cents at $39.76 per barrel, while the WTI was down 0.67% or 25 cents at $36.91 per barrel.

Away from the oil market, most metal futures headed lower during late afternoon trading in Europe. At 1330 GMT, three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (down 0.9%), tin (down 1.5%), lead (down 0.7%) and zinc (down 1.0%) were trading lower on the London Metal Exchange.

The copper contract, still at historic lows, remained under pressure trading at $4,592.50 per metric tonne down 0.9%.

However, Glencore (up 7.01%) led the blue chips and resource stocks higher after saying it has increased its planned target of reducing debt and preserving capital to the tune of $13bn (£8.6bn).

The company also revealed it is examining a potential initial public offer (IPO) of the commodity group's agriculture business and has been in talks about the potential sale of some infrastructure assets.

Fresnillo (up 1.58%) and Centrica (up 2.62%) were also among the risers. Among the midcaps, Wood Group (up 4.71%) jumped after saying it expects to hit all of its targets for the full-year 2015, including a double-digit increase to its dividend.

Elsewhere, Investec tumbled after South Africa President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday evening fired the country’s finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene - a decision that weighed on financial assets from the country.

Nene was replaced by David van Rooyen, whom some reports described a little-known backbencher with no previous experience in finance.

Old Mutual, which generates a large chunk of its profits from South Africa, sank as a broker downgrade and weaker rand weighed on the stock.