LONDON (ShareCast) - A weak morning session in the US ensured London finished off its best levels, although strength in the commodities sector guaranteed gains.

With crude prices firmly cemented above $140, it was always going to be the oil major’s day, with Tullow Oil, BG and Cairn Energy surging ahead.

A warning from OPEC president Chakib Khelil that oil could hit $170 this summer and worries about production cuts in Libya were to blame. Cairn was also boosted by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘in-line’ at Cazenove.

Crude at a new record above $142 a barrel is bad news for fuel-guzzling transport stocks though, with cruise operator Carnival suffering the consequences. British Airways staged a recovery.

Miners also helped prop up the Footise, helped by higher metals prices. Kazakhmys and BHP Billiton stood out.

London Stock Exchange was a poor performer again, with traders deeply unimpressed by its "deep pool" exchange tie-up with Lehmans. Reports that rival deep pool project Turquoise is set to launch in mid-July has added to the concerns.

Bradford & Bingley’s stubborn rejection of overtures from Resolution forced insurance entrepreneur Clive Cowdery’s bid vehicle to scrap plans to invest £400m in the mortgage lender. B&B lost more than a fifth of its value on the news.

Back among the blue chips, Thomson Reuters slipped after Collins Stewart cut its price target. Meanwhile, JP Morgan lowered its rating on Home Retail Group to ‘underweight’ from ‘neutral’ saying that the Argos and Homebase owner is likely to feel the impact of inflation.

ABN Amro has also lowered its rating on Wolseley to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’, saying the building supplies group is likely to breach some of its banking covenants.

Defence firm BAE Systems has appointed Ian King as chief executive, to replace Mike Turner, with effect from 1 September 2008. The group announced in October 2007 that Turner would retire at the end of August 2008. King has been chief operating officer of BAE since January 2007, with responsibility of its UK and Rest of World businesses.

Tesco is about to start a new price war among the supermarkets according to the Times and will reduce the price of 3,000 items by up to 50% from Monday. Asda, meanwhile, has promised to sell ten staple items, including bread, eggs and butter, for only 50p from today.

Life assurance company Prudential has decided not to proceed with a reattribution of its Inherited Estate held in the Prudential Assurance with profits fund. "Our overriding priority is to maintain the long-term financial security of the With-Profits fund and to continue delivering strong performance for the benefit of our policyholders," it said.

Bus and train group National Express reported a good start to 2008 and expects "significant year on year earnings growth for the half year and full year."

BBA Aviation's trading is on track. Chief executive Simon Pryce said the group continues to perform satisfactorily despite a volatile and difficult economic environment in North American markets, but the shares fell even so.

Housebuilder Berkeley lifted full year profits by 3% to £194.3m on revenues 8% higher at £991m. Peer Taylor Wimpey was by far and away the best performing mid-cap, helped by a Panmure Gordon ‘buy’ rating.

Oilexco surged to an all-time high as news of a significant dual zone oil and gas-condensate discovery in the North Sea coincided with record oil prices. The £2bn company said its wholly owned subsidiary Oilexco North Sea Limited and partners BG Group, Hess and BP made the find at Moth, in Block 23/21 in the UK Central North Sea.

Legacy software specialist Micro Focus lifted full year profits by 34% to $88.6m, from $66.2m, on revenues up by a third to $228.2m. The defensive characteristics of our business model, combined with the relevance and compelling nature of our solutions lead us to view 2009 with confidence, it added.

Security alarms specialist Visonic expects to report a ‘substantial improvement’ in profit for the six months to 30 June, despite the continuing adverse impact of the strength of the Israeli shekel.

Shipping company Global Oceanic said it has recommended a £68.3m offer from Newport Holdings.Under the terms of the offer, Global Oceanic will receive 170.5p per share.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 975.00p +5.29%
BG Group (BG.) 1,251.00p +4.42%
Lonmin (LMI) 3,288.00p +4.08%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 3,207.00p +3.92%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,875.00p +3.71%
FirstGroup (FGP) 522.50p +3.67%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,609.00p +3.47%
Lloyds TSB Group (LLOY) 317.00p +3.34%
Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) 1,340.00p +3.32%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,396.00p +2.82%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Wolseley (WOS) 388.00p -3.96%
Carnival (CCL) 1,579.00p -3.78%
Invensys (ISYS) 262.75p -3.40%
Thomson Reuters (TRIL) 1,317.00p -3.09%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 805.50p -2.78%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 2,566.00p -2.69%
SABMiller (SAB) 1,116.00p -2.45%
Unilever (ULVR) 1,398.00p -2.44%
WPP Group (WPP) 483.75p -2.37%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,102.00p -2.23%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 62.00p +12.73%
Randgold Resources (RRS) 2,260.00p +9.34%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 399.25p +6.47%
Bellway (BWY) 470.25p +6.09%
PartyGaming (PRTY) 262.25p +5.75%
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 521.50p +5.57%
Premier Oil (PMO) 1,609.00p +5.30%
Dana Petroleum (DNX) 1,840.00p +5.26%
Connaught (CNT) 424.50p +5.07%
Berkeley Group Holdings Units (BKG) 694.00p +4.68%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Bradford & Bingley (BB.) 63.25p -20.94%
Quintain Estates & Development (QED) 190.25p -8.09%
Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) 98.50p -7.51%
Southern Cross Healthcare Group (SCHE) 313.00p -6.71%
UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCM) 60.75p -6.54%
Mouchel Group (MCHL) 404.50p -5.27%
Johnston Press (JPR) 57.00p -5.00%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 63.75p -4.85%
Aricom (ORE) 82.00p -4.65%
Workspace Group (WKP) 139.75p -4.61%

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