London’s blue-chip shares made further advances today as oil prices surged in the wake of reassuring comments by the incoming boss of the US Federal Reserve.
Brent crude rose 0.4% in London to more than 108 US dollars a barrel after Janet Yellen, who takes over from Ben Bernanke at the end of January, said the Fed has “more work to do” to help the US economy – calming investor fears over asset purchase tapering.
Oil majors rose in response, helping the FTSE 100 Index climb another 12.7 points to 6678.9 after strong gains yesterday on the US cheer.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street pushed to new record highs overnight, while Asian markets also made strong advances.
In London, oil stocks littered the risers board with energy explorer Tullow Oil leading the way with an 11.8p gain to 896.8p, followed closed by Royal Dutch Shell, up 27p to 2169.5p.
BP was 2.2p higher at 485.5p.
But the prospect of higher fuel costs weighed on airlines, offsetting an earnings upgrade from British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG).
IAG said it aims to achieve an operating profit of 1.8 billion euros (£1.5 billion) in 2015, up from 1.6 billion euros (£1.3 billion), but shares still fell 10p to 363p.
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