Sector movers: Oil and gas stocks nudged higher by Shell

The FTSE 100 ended up 0.43% or 27.24 points higher at 6,326.16, while the FTSE 250 was 0.13% or 22.54 points lower at 17,132.82. Oil prices continued to rise, spurred on by the United States cutting output forecasts and other big producers including Russia and Saudia Arabia signalling joint action to support the market.

At 1606 BST, the Brent front-month futures contract for November delivery was up 4.63% or $2.28 at $51.53 per barrel. Concurrently, the WTI was up 4.15% or $1.92 at $48.18 per barrel.

Meanwhile, selected base metal futures rose on the London Metal Exchange but declines in Asia meant a few continued to trade lower. Past the midway point of trading, LME’s three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (up 0.1%), copper (up 0.5%) and tin (up 0.3%) were in positive territory, while lead (down 0.7%), nickel (down 0.6%) and zinc (down 0.3%) futures were heading lower.

Ultimately it meant that oil producers along with equipment and service suppliers led the sector movers, followed by the industrial metals sector.

In the FTSE 100, Royal Dutch Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden caused A and B shares to rise around 3.5% each after he told attendees at the Oil and Money conference in London the oil giant is doing everything it can and “pulling out all the stops” to safeguard its dividends and buy-back programme.

Risers on the FTSE 250 also came from the sector, with Premier Oil (up 6.80%) and Tullow Oil (up 5.51%) helping the market finish higher.

Greggs (up 7.62%) also helped the food and drug retailers’ rise 2.82%, after investors gorged on good news from the bakery chain. It reported sales in the 13 weeks to October were slightly ahead of expectations, adding that the full year results are likely to be ahead of previous guidance.