Sector Movers: Mining, oil stocks remain on recovery run
Mining, metals, oilfield services and oil and gas stocks continued their recovery run on Friday as the UK bank holiday weekend approached.
Just ahead of the close, the FTSE 100 was trading up 0.52% or 31.89 points to 6,223.92, while the FTSE 250 was up 0.75% or 126.91 points at 17,048.86, with natural resources stocks largely leading gains for a second successive session.
At 1538 BST, the Brent front month future contract was trading up 1.98% or 94 cents at $48.50 per barrel, while the WTI was up 2.89% or $1.23 at $43.79. Both benchmarks have largely reversed losses incurred on ‘Black Monday’, a trend that began earlier in the session in Asia.
Trading in the base metals market was fairly upbeat even though doubts over China continue to persist. Past the midway point of trading on the London Metal Exchange, three-month delivery contracts of primary aluminium (up 1.2%), copper (up 1.5%), lead (up 1.3%), nickel (up 1.0%), tin (up 3.0%) and zinc (up 3.9%) were all in positive territory by some distance.
With a US interest rate hike now less than certain for September, gold led the precious metals market higher. COMEX gold for December delivery was up 1.34% or $15 at $1,137.60 an ounce, while spot gold was up 1.04% or $11.71 at $1,136.71. Concurrently, COMEX silver rose 1.10% or 16 cents at $14.58 an ounce, while spot platinum was up 2.09% or $20.90 at $1,021.25 an ounce holding firm above the confidence boosting $1,000 level.
Invariably, the commodities-heavy London market had stocks from related sectors leading the market. The oil and gas blue chip trio of BG Group (up 3.10%), BP (up 2.11%) and Royal Dutch Shell (‘a’ shares up 2.09%/ ‘b’ shares up 2.23%) saw sizeable gains and found their places in the leading FTSE risers.
The FTSE 250 mirrored a similar theme with Tullow Oil (up 8.41%), Lonmin (up 6.66%) and Hunting (up 6.04%) leading the way.
Away from natural resources stocks, positive vibes also came from Inmarsat after the successful launch of a rocket carrying the third and final satellite of its $1.6bn Global Xpress superfast broadband programme.
But a spokeswoman for the FTSE 100 company said it will not be able to determine whether or not the launch was a success until roughly 15 hours and 31 minutes following lift-off. Nonetheless, investors cheered the launch bumping Inmarsat’s shares up 4.44% or 41.50p to 977p.