Sector Movers: Resource stocks rise, but housebuilders tumble

At the close of proceedings, the FTSE 100 ended a mere 0.09% or 5.82 points lower at 6147.06, while the FTSE 250 ended 0.36% or 60.52 points lower at 16,728.97. Oil prices headed sideways with Brent and WTI futures alternating between losses and gains for much of the European session.

The US Department of Energy’s statistical arm – the Energy Information Administration – reported the country’s crude oil inventories rose by 10.4m barrels to a total of 518m barrels last week, well above the 3.6m barrel increase expected by analysts.

However, on the upside, the International Energy Agency said US oil production fell last week by about 25,000 barrels per day to just over 9m bpd, down from a peak of 9.6m bpd in April, soothing concerns about a supply glut.

At 1723 GMT, the Brent front month futures contract was down 0.30% or 11 cents to $36.70 per barrel, while the WTI fell 0.06% or two cents to $34.38 per barrel.

Away from oil markets, precious metals returned to positive territory. The COMEX front-month gold futures contract was up 0.73% or $9.00 at $1,239.80 an ounce, while spot gold was up 0.63% or $7.76 to $1,239.91 an ounce.

COMEX silver rose 1.48% or 22 cents to $14.98 an ounce, but spot platinum fell 0.41% or $3.85 to $934.70 an ounce.

Headline base metal futures were largely higher across the London Metal Exchange board. At 1635 GMT, three-month futures contracts of primary aluminium (+0.6%), nickel (+2.2%), lead (+1.4%), tin (+1.1%) and copper (+1.7%) headed upwards, the latter seeing its highest level in over three months.

Unsurprisingly, Anglo American (+6.68%) led the FTSE 100 gainers, with BHP Billiton (+5.13%) and Glencore (+3.75%) in close attendance. Midcap resource sector gainers included Vedanta Resources (+12.71%) and Amec Foster Wheeler (+9.81%), but Centamin (-5.23%) slipped lower.

Away from resource stocks, housebuilders headed lower down on the back of a weak construction purchasing managers’ survey in the morning, which was lower than forecasts predicted. Persimmon (-3.16%), Bellway (-4.62%) and Berkeley Group (-3.94%) were among the biggest fallers of the session.

Elsewhere, Virgin Money (+7.00%) gained as it reported full year pre-tax profits that were much higher than forecast and a healthier balance sheet.

On a negative note, broadcaster ITV (-3.49%) was in the red as it reported a 6% rise in annual pre-tax profits of £641m but warned that first quarter revenue would be flat.

Finally, Intertek (-4.63%) ended up as the biggest blue chip faller of the session after it reported a statutory loss in the full year owing to challenging conditions in oil and gas markets.