Sector movers: Miners, Big Oil weigh on FTSE 350
Commodity related stocks were the chief drag on the FTSE 350 amid a combination of growth concerns and risk aversion.
BP
379.05p
17:15 20/12/24
FTSE 100
8,084.61
17:04 20/12/24
FTSE 350
4,463.29
17:14 20/12/24
FTSE All-Share
4,421.11
17:04 20/12/24
Oil & Gas Producers
7,635.36
17:14 20/12/24
Shell
2,394.50p
16:54 20/12/24
Industrial miners were on the back foot as copper futures on COMEX gave back around 2.5%, against a backdrop of worries about slower growth and bullish bets by traders at the LME and CME around two-year highs, according to analysts at SP Angel.
Oil majors BP and Shell were hammered as crude oil futures continued to slide towards their lows from the turn of the year.
Weighing on the oil market were indications from oil cartel OPEC+ at the weekend that it would start to gradually ease some of its productions curbs beginning in October.
Risk aversion more generally buoyed the Greenback throughout much of the session, although by the London close it was unchanged, which in turn likely added to the selling in the commodity space.
"Oil is on track for its fifth consecutive day of lower prices and has so far fallen by around 9% from last week's high amid concerns that from October onwards there will be a glut of the black gold," said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at IG.
"OPEC+ allowed for voluntary cuts from eight member countries to be gradually unwound then. The gold price also tumbled by over 1% while that of silver by over 4%."
Top performing sectors so far today
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,752.81 +2.38%
Investment Banking and Brokerage Services 14,706.09 +1.34%
Media 12,382.76 +1.21%
Travel & Leisure 7,610.26 +0.94%
Industrial Support Services 11,384.76 +0.93%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Precious Metals and Mining 10,336.69 -3.40%
Leisure Goods 24,748.65 -3.02%
Oil, Gas and Coal 8,902.58 -2.72%
Industrial Metals & Mining 6,876.55 -2.36%
Chemicals 8,962.09 -1.84%