FTSE market in subdued mood

The London market was in a subdued mood today, as investor sentiment continued to be dented by the situation in the Middle East.

By 9am the FTSE 100 Index was off 13.8 points at 5219.8, despite Friday’s positive close and modest gains on Wall Street before the weekend.

Tom Hougaard, trader at Financial Spreads, said low volatility, the situation in the Middle East and the approach of the earnings season was creating a general sense of uncertainty.

Crude prices traded higher overnight but heavyweight oil stocks failed to move forward. Instead, BP lost 3½p at 605p, Shell shed a penny at 503p and Enterprise Oil was off a penny at 724p.

Mining giant Anglo American was one of the morning’s heaviest fallers, losing 31p at £11.64p. It said it was planning to raise 1 billion US dollars (£699.3 million) through a convertible bond issue and would use the cash to cut debt and for other corporate purposes.

But the morning’s main news came from BT. The telecoms group slipped 3¼p to 270¼p as new chief executive Ben Verwaayen outlined his three-year strategy, which contained few surprises.

Mr Verwaayen said he would control costs, cut debt and drive growth by focusing on a range of areas, including customer satisfaction and ‘‘financial discipline’’.