LONDON (ShareCast) - The Footsie has finally slipped into the red with the strength of oil stocks no longer enough to outweigh the losses racked up by the bulk of the index’s constituents.

Crude oil for July delivery has risen more than $3 in early trading in New York, boosting demand for the likes of BP, BG Group and Shell.

Curiously, the strength of the oil price has not stopped fuel consumers British Airways and FirstGroup from making progress.

Royal Bank of Scotland's is drifting lower after it said write-downs on credit market exposures are expected to remain within the estimates already indicated. Overall, the group's underlying results, excluding write-downs on credit market exposures, are expected to remain satisfactory. The bank said integration of ABN Amro is on schedule with cost savings slightly ahead of expectations.

Bradford & Bingley is expected to release details of its revised rights issue today and it is tipped to spark another row about TPG buying its 23% stake without existing shareholders getting a look-in. Meanwhile Alliance & Leicester is weaker ahead of its expected relegation from the FTSE 100.

Housebuilders continue to fall like a stone. Persimmon is down again after Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch downgraded the stock from “neutral” to “sell”. The stock is certain to be ejected from the list of FTSE 100 constituents, leaving the benchmark index bereft of housebuilders.

Persimmon is by no means alone among housebuilders on the slide, with wince inducing losses seen on the likes of Taylor Wimpey, Bellway, Redrow and Bovis/ Worst affected of all is Barratt, after the Daily Telegraph highlighted a DKW note on the company which suggested Barratt needs to raise at least £1bn to survive. With a market capitalisation where it is, the company would have to embark on a rights issue of around five-for-one at a 50% discount, something Dresdner said was "possibly unfeasible".

Plumber’s merchant Wolseley joins the housebuilding sector on the slide.

Cable & Wireless and Johnson Matthey are both sluggish today as they trade in ex-dividend form.

Kazakh miner ENRC says the good trends seen in the first quarter have continued in the current three months. "Into the second quarter of 2008 the trends underlying trading this year have continued. Significant price increases will feed through to benefit ferroalloys and iron ore revenues," chairman David Cooksey said ahead of its AGM.

Elsewhere in the mining sector copper miner Antofagasta is lower after its AGM today. The chairman, Jean-Paul Luksic said at the AGM “the cash retained in the business will be used prudently to achieve future profitable growth in projects like Esperanza and Reko Diq, not to mention the potential for future exploration and acquisition successes.”

Among the FTSE 250 stocks, Ferrexpo and Invensys are wanted ahead of expected promotion to the FTSE 100. Home Retail, one of the stocks likely to make way for them, is sharply lower in a retail sector which also sees fellow DIY company Kingfisher under the cosh. Clothes outfits Next and Marks & Spencer suffer from downbeat commentary on the UK retail sector by Citigroup. The banking group rates UK retail stocks as a “sell” on the basis that discretionary spending power will decline this year and next.

Citigroup did, however, have some good words to say about spread betting firm IG Group, which it now rates as a “buy” on expectations of improved earnings in 2008 and 2009.

Oil and gas facilities service provider Petrofac, another stock pushing for promotion to the FTSE 100, has won the duty holder contract for the Northern Producer floating production facility worth around £15m a year.

Fund Manager Rensburg Sheppards funds under management fell to £12.95bn at the end of March from £14.4bn, a year ago, though underlying profits rose by 15.6% to £41.5m (2007: £35.9m). " We remain cautiously positive in our outlook," it added.

Oil services group Cape says current trading is in line with management expectations, with strong organic growth in all international markets with activity levels at record highs across the group. " Growth and strong cash generation is enabling us to pay down our debt in line with expectations and fills the board with increased confidence about the future prospects for growth," chief executive Martin May said.

Stagecoach Theatre Arts says more school openings than forecast, combined with continued reduction in overheads, means profits before tax for the year to May are expected to be significantly ahead of the current market expectations.

Shares in AIM-listed property services firm First Property rallied after it posted stellar full year results and hiked its dividend. The East and Central European focused firm added that it looks forward to 2009 with continued confidence

Industrial products firm Chapelthorpe said cost reductions and improved trading helped narrow full year pre-tax losses but sees 2009 as challenging.

Shares in Irish Ormonde Mining stepped ahead after it reported 'highly encouraging test results' at its Barruecopardo Tungsten project in Spain.

Construction and legal consultant Driver Group reported a 36% rise in first-half pre-tax profits and said it remains positive about its prospects for the future.

IT group and bid target Netstore has played down an article by CRN on its website that suggested buyers wanted to wait for clarity on the firm’s figures. “The company wishes to clarify that the comments contained in that article were attributed to an individual with no knowledge of this matter and should be disregarded,” a statement from the firm read.

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