A fresh slide in the price of oil to a five-year low triggered more pain for energy stocks today as the London market started the week on the back foot.
The slump was accompanied by a rout across the commodities sector as the FTSE 100 Index dropped by 71.7 points to 6650.5.
With Brent crude now firmly below the 70 US dollars a barrel mark, shares in exploration firm Tullow Oil topped the fallers board with a dive of 8%, off 34.3p to 391.7p.
BP was 2% or 8.2p lower at 411.9p, Royal Dutch Shell dropped 59p to 2164p and BG Group eased 30.7p to 869.5p, despite bowing to shareholder pressure by unveiling a revised pay package for new boss Helge Lund.
Airline stocks benefited from the oil price fall as British Airways owner International Airlines Group rose 8.8p to 466.3p and easyJet lifted 14p to 1667p.
In the FTSE 250 Index, shares in Balfour Beatty surged 5% or 9p to 192.3p after John Laing Infrastructure Fund said it had made an offer worth £1 billion for Balfour’s portfolio of public private partnership (PPP) contracts.
The move would signal the break-up of Balfour after a series of profit warnings caused by troubles at its UK construction arm.