Sector movers: Resource stocks struggle but financials nudge London market higher

Resource stocks remained under pressure on Thursday, but a strong performance by financial and banking services listings saw the London market close proceedings on a positive note.

The FTSE 100 ended 0.68% or 41.35 points higher at 6,102.54 points, while the FTSE 250 was 0.59% or 101.34 points higher at 17,177.28 as oil futures registered further declines with Brent near seven-year lows.

At 1734 GMT, the Brent front-month futures contract was down 0.67% or 25 cents to $37.14 per barrel, while WTI was 2.31% or 82 cents lower at $34.70 per barrel, as a stronger dollar added to the oil market’s list of oversupply and tepid demand woes.

Precious metals also continued lower, with the COMEX gold futures contract down 2.32% or $25.00 to $1,051.80 an ounce, while spot gold was 1.93% or $20.73 lower at $1,051.59 an ounce. Away from gold, COMEX silver fell 3.81% or 54 cents to $13.71 an ounce, while spot platinum was down 3.48% or $30.41 at $843.49 an ounce.

Base metals took another tumble in European trading on persistent concerns about China’s importation levels, as copper remained near six-year lows. At 1634, the three-month copper delivery futures contract was down 1.0% to $4,549.00 per metric tonne on the London Metal Exchange.

Additionally, primary aluminium (down 0.5%), nickel (down 1.0%), lead (down 3.4%) and zinc (down 1.15%) futures were also in negative territory. Invariably, four of the five biggest FTSE 100 fallers were resource stocks, namely Anglo American (down 5.27%), Glencore (down 4.14%), Randgold Resources (down 3.47%) and Fresnillo (down 2.82%)

The resource decline theme was mirrored among the midcaps, with Premier Oil (down 12.48%), Vedanta Resources (down 4.91%), Hunting (down 4.37%) and Acacia Mining (down 4.37%) among the biggest FTSE 100 fallers.

However, an uptick in banking and financial stocks carried the market into positive territory. Standard Chartered (up 7.26%) rallied after news that it has hired HSBC veteran Simon Cooper to head up its corporate and institutional banking division.

Old Mutual (up 4.12%) continued to rebound as political issues in South Africa subsided. A broker downgrade and weaker rand weighed on the stock on Thursday last week, compounded by South Africa's president unexpectedly sacking finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, replacing him with relatively unknown David van Rooyen.

Finally, Berkeley Group (down 4.58%) declined as it went ex-dividend, while midcap Elementis (down 6.55%) slumped after warning that 2015 earnings would be at the lower end of market expectations.