Energy Voice

Shares in the UK’s top listed firms fell for a fourth consecutive day today as fears about Spain’s banking sector fuelled another grim session for world markets.

The FTSE 100 Index is now at its lowest level since November after falling 66.9 points to 5,338.4.

Markets in Germany and France were 1% lower, while Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.4% down as the London market closed.

London’s leading shares index fell to its lowest point since December today as fears that Greece will crash out of the eurozone continued to plague world markets.

The FTSE 100 Index was down 32.4 points at 5,405.3 as investors continued to fret that another election in Greece next month will see anti-austerity parties gain power.

Heavily-weighted mining stocks suffered more falls, while banks recovered some of their earlier losses.

London shares recovered from the early blow of shock £1.2billion trading losses at JPMorgan Chase, America’s biggest bank, to finish higher today.

The FTSE 100 Index spent much of the session in negative territory but encouraging consumer confidence numbers in the US and signs that Spain is prepared to get to grips with its banks fuelled a recovery that left the top flight 31.6 points higher at 5,575.5.

British Airways owner International Airlines Group was 2.4p higher at 165.4p even though rising fuel prices and weak trading at Iberia contributed to bigger first quarter losses.

Beleaguered investors were given some respite today after the FTSE 100 Index posted its first positive session in a week.

A slight fall in weekly US jobless claims was enough to trigger the small rally, aided by a break in the flow of grim news from the eurozone.

Commodity stocks, which have been battered in recent days, attracted bargain hunters. Polymetal International topped the risers board, up 6% or 49p at 816.5p and silver miner Fresnillo added 41p to £14.17.

Scottish engineering firm Weir Group said yesterday it continued to expect a year of good progress, in line with its previous guidance. A drop in orders in its oil and gas division – down 5% on a year ago during the first quarter – would be offset by strong trading in the minerals and power/industrial divisions, it added.

The ongoing eurozone crisis put more pressure on markets today, with London’s FTSE 100 Index suffering a third straight session of losses.

It was down by 80 points at one stage but recovered late in the session to close 24.5 points lower at 5,530.5.

Despite the rally, the Footsie has lost around 4% of its value in the three sessions since Thursday night and is now well below the 5,572 seen at the start of the year.

International oil and gas facility service provider Petrofac said yesterday it had won a deal in the North Sea worth nearly £1million.

The firm said its plant asset management (PAM) team would work on Nexen’s Golden Eagle development in the central North Sea and provide the operator with a maintenance regime for the project.

John Morrison, European operations manager at Petrofac’s PAM team, said: “While we already have experience of similar projects thanks to our work on the Quad 204, Clair Ridge and Andrew Area Development projects for BP, this continues our expansion in the provision of maintenance excellence solutions into the North Sea offshore market, and we look forward to building on this further.”

Fears that Greece will crash out of the euro triggered a global sell-off today that left London’s leading shares index at its lowest close of 2012.

The FTSE 100 Index was down nearly 2%, or 100.5 points at 5,554.6, after the leader of Greece’s left-wing Syriza bloc said he would try to form a coalition based on tearing up the terms of the country’s bailout deal, which would likely cause chaos by seeing the country ejected from the eurozone.

The turmoil wiped £26billion from the value of London’s blue chip shares index, with banks among the biggest losers.

The national oil company of Kuwait has walked away from takeover talks with North Sea-focused oil and gas explorer Ithaca Energy, a report in the Middle East has said.

Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration, the international arm of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, could not be contacted yesterday and a spokesman for Ithaca was unable to comment.

A Kuwaiti newspaper cited high-level, unnamed sources at KPC saying the door to negotiation was now firmly closed.