FTSE slips into the red

A nervous London market slipped into the red today despite gains for oil and commodity stocks.

The FTSE 100 Index – which shed more than 2% yesterday – was given an early lift by a strong finish on Wall Street, but this confidence ebbed away as the session wore on.

On a slow day for corporate news the Footsie fell below the 5400 mark, slipping 9.6 points to 5397.2 by the mid-morning.

Resurgent oil prices above 143 dollars a barrel on tensions over Iran helped the Footsie’s heavyweight energy stocks buck the wider market falls.

BG Group added 17p to 1153p, BP cheered 7p to 547.25 and Royal Dutch Shell was 28p better at 1937p.

Mining stocks also made progress as investors shifted their money into commodity safe havens, aided by helpful broker comments. Eurasian Natural Resources led the sector’s advances and the Footsie risers’ board, gaining 56p to 1103p, almost 6%.

But retailers were on the back foot despite John Lewis reporting a stronger sales performance last week.

Rival Marks & Spencer was the worst blue-chip performer, dropping 11.5p to 228.75p. It was closely followed by B&Q owner Kingfisher, off 3.7p at 95.3p, and Next, down 27.5p at 868p.

Other prominent fallers included Royal Bank of Scotland, which lost 4.9p to 195p after Zurich pulled out of the running to buy its insurance business, which includes brands such as Direct Line.

But engineering and project management firm Amec cheered 11p to 872p after the company was named in the winning consortium to run Sellafield, Britain’s biggest nuclear site.

In the second tier, housebuilders maintained their progress as investors eyed value in the sector. Taylor Wimpey was 5p ahead at 40p on reports it could sell a third of the business to private equity. Barratt Developments was 4p better at 71p