Sector movers: Mining, oil stocks pull London market higher

Resource stocks continued their recovery run on Wednesday following an uptick in oil and metal prices, with primary London market indices ending in positive territory for a second successive session.

The FTSE 100 ended 2.60% or 157.88 points higher at 6,240.98 points, while the FTSE 250 closed 1.31% or 225.70 points higher at 17,166.18. Oil futures spiked after an unexpectedly large fall in US crude inventories sent both benchmarks higher, with the spread premium inverting in WTI’s favour.

At 1642 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract was up 2.88% or $1.04 to $37.15 per barrel, while WTI rose 3.68% or $1.33 to $37.47, as the spread between both futures contracts was initially wiped out and subsequently turned into a premium in favour of WTI; only the fourth such occurrence since 2010.

Earlier, the US Energy Information Administration reported crude oil inventories fell by 5.9m barrels in the past week, compared with analysts' expectations for an increase of 1.1-1.3m barrels, lending support to oil futures. Crude stocks at the US delivery hub of Cushing, Oklahoma rose by 2 million barrels, the EIA added.

Base metals also had a positive session with most futures contracts on the up. The three-month copper delivery futures contract was up 0.3% to $4,703.00 per metric tonne in late afternoon trading on the London Metal Exchange. Additionally, primary aluminium (up 1.8%), lead (up 0.8%) tin (up 0.7%) and zinc (up 1.7%) futures also traded higher.

Invariably, the biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Anglo American (up 9.06%), Glencore (up 8.45%), BHP Billiton (up 6.88%), BG Group (up 6.28%) and Rio Tinto (up 6.11%). A largely positive session saw Sports Direct (down 0.36%) as the only blue chip to end the session in negative territory.

Midcaps were also led by resource stocks as Nostrum Oil & Gas (up 15.52%), Tullow Oil (up 10.12%), Evraz (up 6.89%) and Weir Group (up 6.65%) led the FTSE 250. However, Ted Baker (down 2.39%) declined after Jefferies cut its rating on the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’, saying the luxury retailer is likely to lose momentum due to mild weather, heavy discounting in the US and a slowdown in Asia.