Sector movers: Resource stocks pull London market higher

Resource stocks continued their recovery run on Tuesday following an uptick in oil prices, with primary London market indices returning back to positive territory.

The FTSE 100 ended 0.80% or 48.26 points higher at 6,083.10 points, while the FTSE 250 was 0.52% or 89.32 points higher at 17,166.18. Oil futures reversed declines during early trading stateside on, as the spread between both benchmarks - Brent and WTI - narrowed to zero, with the US marker recovering at a better rate than the global proxy standard.

At 1655 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract was up 0.14% or five cents to $36.40 per barrel, not far from $36.06; its lowest level since July 2004. However, the WTI jumped 1.65% or 59 cents higher to equal Brent, for the first time since 15 January, at $36.40 per barrel.

Elsewhere, base metals had a mixed session with selected futures contracts trading up earlier in the session only to shed their intraday gains during late afternoon trading in Europe. The three-month copper delivery futures contract was down 1.0% to $4,687.00 per metric tonne at 1635 GMT on the London Metal Exchange.

Additionally, primary aluminium (down 0.5%), nickel (down 1.9%), lead (down 0.7%) and zinc (down 1.2%) futures were also in negative territory. But a combination short-covering ahead of Christmas and an oil market uptick gave the blue chip gainers roster a very resource driven theme.

Anglo American (up 5.70%), Antofagasta (up 4.66%), Glencore (up 3.36%), BG Group (up 3.32%) and Royal Dutch Shell (‘A’ shares up 3.05%) led the FTSE 100 charge.

The midcap risers’ list mirrored that of the large caps with Amec Foster Wheeler (up 8.82%), Evraz (up 6.49%), Acacia Mining (up 4.67%) and Centamin (up 4.64%) among the biggest FTSE 250 gainers.Vedanta Resources (up 4.41%), Drax (up 4.26%) and Ophir Energy (up 4.10%) also notched up decent gains.

However, on the negative side Centrica slipped after RBC Capital Markets cut its target price on the British Gas owner to 260p from 280p, but reiterated its ‘outperform’ recommendation.

Finally, retailer Marks & Spencer (down 1.05%) was the biggest FTSE 100 faller of the session after Nomura cut its price target on the stock to 565p from 600p, although it retained its ‘buy’ rating.