London close: Shares drop amid falling oil prices and economic woe

The price of a barrel of Brent crude leaked more than 10% and US light crude was off 11% just after the close in London as Middle East and US oil chiefs continued their stand-off over production.

Shares in Europe were being weighed down by a slowdown in manufacturing growth across the region and in China.

The German purchasing managers index signalled contraction at 49.5, which pushed the Euro-area survey close to contraction at 50.1.

France was still in contraction territory, although it beat expectations, while Spain also cheered economists by expanding further.

The FTSE 100 Index closed 66.25 points adrift at 6656.37 as oil industry losses offset any gains from a slightly faster rate of UK manufacturing growth in November, supported mainly by domestic orders.

Tullow Oil was the biggest faller in the Footsie with a 25.5p drop to 400.5p while oil services group Weir dipped 47p to 1829p and Petrofac slipped 17p to 808p. BP gave up 5.7p at 414.5p.

In the second tier, Afren was 6.1p off at 45.66p and Enquest backtracked 4.46p to 45.11p.

Investors checked out of Intercontinental Hotels Group by 102p to 2608p after UBS downgraded it to a ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’ on expensive valuation grounds.

Fund manager Aberdeen Asset Management climbed 7.6p to 457.5p as annual underlying profits inched higher in the year to 30 September despite a "more challenging environment".

Market Movers
techMARK 2,923.46 -0.82%
FTSE 100 6,656.37 -0.99%
FTSE 250 15,719.77 -0.83%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 457.50p +1.69%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 671.00p +1.59%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 854.50p +1.42%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 428.50p +1.23%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,548.00p +0.98%
Fresnillo (FRES) 719.00p +0.98%
Wolseley (WOS) 3,619.00p +0.81%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 461.00p +0.77%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,098.00p +0.73%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,346.00p +0.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 400.50p -5.99%
Carnival (CCL) 2,692.00p -4.54%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,608.00p -3.76%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,115.00p -3.63%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 453.40p -3.16%
SABMiller (SAB) 3,455.00p -3.06%
TUI Travel (TT.) 431.20p -3.04%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 227.20p -2.89%
Old Mutual (OML) 194.80p -2.75%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,413.00p -2.69%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Croda International (CRDA) 2,566.00p +4.56%
SSP Group (SSPG) 275.60p +4.28%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 191.10p +4.26%
William Hill (WMH) 347.20p +3.64%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 300.40p +2.95%
Saga (SAGA) 156.90p +2.02%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 320.00p +1.91%
Foxtons Group (FOXT) 153.90p +1.45%
Brit (BRIT) 252.00p +1.33%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,183.00p +1.16%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Afren (AFR) 45.66p -11.77%
EnQuest (ENQ) 45.11p -9.00%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 89.00p -5.12%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 694.50p -4.80%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 515.00p -4.63%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 138.80p -4.47%
Bodycote (BOY) 614.00p -4.36%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 103.20p -4.27%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,007.00p -4.19%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 295.00p -4.13%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 5.15p +4.57%
Skyepharma (SKP) 370.25p +3.86%
Vectura Group (VEC) 129.50p +1.97%
Consort Medical (CSRT) 713.00p +1.86%
Filtronic (FTC) 22.88p +1.67%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 86.25p +1.47%
Promethean World (PRW) 24.25p +1.04%
Sepura (SEPU) 148.25p +0.85%
CML Microsystems (CML) 352.50p +0.71%
Dialight (DIA) 783.00p +0.32%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Optos (OPTS) 233.00p -4.90%
Torotrak (TRK) 14.00p -3.45%
Kofax Limited (DI) (KFX) 422.75p -2.48%
Ricardo (RCDO) 617.00p -2.06%
Innovation Group (TIG) 30.50p -1.61%
E2V Technologies (E2V) 170.00p -1.59%
RM (RM.) 159.50p -1.54%
Gresham Computing (GHT) 84.00p -1.18%
Sarossa (SARS) 1.83p -1.08%
BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 15.62p -0.79%