Footsie falls below 4800 mark

A rally by mining stocks today failed to prevent the FTSE 100 Index from falling back below the 4800 barrier.

Analysts blamed the latest decline on a grim session on Wall Street, as higher oil prices and concerns over consumer confidence sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average 78 points lower to 10393 on Friday evening.

With Wall Street only expected to post a small recovery later today, the FTSE 100 Index was down 15.6 points at 4787.7 at mid-morning.

British Airways was among those on the way down – off 4.5p to 243p – as investors reacted to the sight of crude oil at 49 US dollars a barrel in New York. Among other companies exposed to high energy costs, Smiths Group slipped 23.5p to 830.5p and BAE Systems eased 3.25p to 237.75p.

Mining companies helped offset some of London’s weakness, as the sector continued to benefit from positive sentiment towards prices in 2005. Rio Tinto led the way, up 39p at 1659p, while BHP Billiton rose 8p to 645p and Xstrata lifted 17p to 932p. The oil price rise sent BP up by 1% or 5.5p to 517.5p while Shell cheered 4.25p to 460.25p.

Elsewhere, pubs group JD Wetherspoon fell more than 3% – 8.5p to 251.5p - after announcing it intended to ban smoking in all its pubs by May 2006.

On a quiet day for corporate news, engineer Invensys surged 7% or 1.25p to 18.25p after sticking by its forecasts for the year to the end of March.

Magazine publisher Emap said the same thing but was greeted with a drop of 10.5p to 847p.

And department store group Beale was off 3p to 66.5p as it said trading over Christmas had put a dent in recent signs of a trading recovery.