Oil and gas shares staged a partial recovery yesterday as the City bounced back from “Black Monday”.
Billions of pounds were wiped off their stock during the week’s first trading session as markets around the world reacted badly to economic woes in China and suffered their biggest single-day fall since the financial crisis.
But investor sentiment improved yesterday, helping London’s main market – the FTSE 100 Index – jump 3.09%, or 182.5 points to 6,081.3 in its biggest one-day rise since September 7, 2011.
About £47billion was added back on to the value of the UK’s top 100 listed companies after £74billion was written off in the previous session.
Among the London Stock Exchange-listed oil stocks, BP and Royal Dutch Shell were up by 1.3% and 2.5% yesterday to 335.35p and £16.19 respectively.
Serica Energy, whose shares sank more than 18% on Monday, saw its stock gain nearly 4% to 4.825p yesterday.
Premier Oil lifted 3.8% to 92.20p, Ithaca Energy recovered by more than 13% to 32p and Total was up by 4.5% at 39.34p.
BG Group and Centrica rose by 3.2% to 960.6p and 1.4% to 243.8p respectively.
EnQuest was not so badly affected on Monday and its shares added nearly 3% to 26p yesterday.
Energy service firms were also better off, with Petrofac and Wood Group up by 4.9% to £7.67 and 5.7% to 580.5p respectively.
Cape gained 6.5% at £2.13, Hunting added nearly 8% at 414.4p and Amec Foster Wheeler lifted 5.4% to £7.35.
Aberdeen oil and gas industry firms Plexus Holdings and Parkmead Group rose by 1.6% to £1.98 and 1.9% to 81p respectively.
London-listed mining giants have been badly hit lately, but their shares also made a recovery in the latest session.
BHP Billiton was one of the biggest climbers in the rebound, despite posting worse-than-expected annual results for the year to the end of June 30. Shares rose more than 5%, or 53.5p to £10.21.
There was also a rise for Antofagasta – up nearly 9%, or 46.5p to 579.5p – despite its own set of grim results.
More Than insurer RSA Insurance was another big riser – adding 4%, or 19.5p to 514.5p – after it said it was willing to back a £5.6billion takeover by Swiss rival Zurich following a proposed offer at £5.50 a share.
On other major international trading floors, Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac 40 stock exchanges were each up by around 4%. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by more than 350 points at the time of the market close in London.
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