Royal Dutch Shell and BG Group were strong risers in the top flight after the oil firm said its £43billion merger with the gas giant was on track to complete in early 2016.
Shell also upgraded its annual cost savings target for the deal to £2.3billion from £1.6billion previously.
Shell lifted 15p to 1729p, while BG Group rose 13.5p to 1042.5p.
Standard Chartered shares came under pressure after announcing 15,000 jobs cuts and a £3.3billion cash-call to investors as it swung into the red in the third quarter.
The Asian-focused bank saw shares fall 6% after posting a pre-tax loss of £90million, compared with profits of £972 million.
The wider FTSE 100 Index struggled for direction, up 1.4 points to 6362.6, with Standard the biggest faller as its new boss Bill Winters admitted the results were “disappointing”.
Standard shares fell 49p to 664p.
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