London shares started Thursday on the back foot as falling crude prices hit oil & gas majors.
The FTSE 100 Index dropped 18.97 points to 6733 as the price of a barrel of US light crude dropped to just over US$45.
BP (LON:BP.) backtracked 13.7p to 381.35p, Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) leaked 8p to 1868p and BG Group (LON:BG.) deflated 4p to 1097.5p.
Miners did better after Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) blamed lower iron ore prices for a big profit dip but maintained its dividend. Rio’s shares rose 11p to 2578.5p.
Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) also sparkled 49p to 3882p on news of a quarterly gold production record.
Shares in GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) were 20p healthier at 1439p on market talk of a potential £98bn takeover by US rival Pfizer or Swiss drug group Novartis.
On the economic front, Mark Carney’s Bank of England was due to provide the market with not one but three possible trading triggers.
For the first time the central bank was set on the same day to announce the base interest rate and its minutes, and shortly after that Carney will hold a press conference as well.
Kathleen Brooks, head of research at Forex.com and City Index, said the Bank aimed to prepare the market for changes to monetary policy without causing excess volatility.
“The Bank wants the market to price in its next move in moderate steps without causing major swings in asset prices and panic,” she said in a note.
“Now that the economy is back on its feet and wages are rising, the Bank needs to come up with a strategy for hiking rates and getting the market comfortable with any change to borrowing costs in the coming months.”
Admittedly, after a number of years of unchanged rock bottom rates it is probably not that likely that all three will stimulate a market reaction, but it will be a busy day on Threadneedle Street nonetheless.
So, traders will likely be watching and listening for clues about when a rate rise will come.
Sentiment on Wall Street was weighed by continued low crude prices and expectations that the Federal Reserve was more likely to increase its interest rates next month.
The Dow Jones, meanwhile, dropped back just 10 points to 15,540.
In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.5% lower while the Shanghai Composite was down 0.4%. Japan’s Nikkei, however, gained around 0.6% to 20,734.
Back in London, takeover target RSA Insurance (LON:RSA) was 7.5p lower at 516.5p despite reporting progress in its recovery drive and reinstating its dividend.
Aerospace engineer Cobham (LON:COB) flew 20.5p higher to 283p as it posted higher orders, revenue and profit.
Investors in Enterprise Inns toasted a rise in sales as good weather encouraged people to visit the pub. Shares lifted 6.3p to 121p.
In the small cap space, Sound Oil (LON:SOU) said a gas sales deal has now been signed for the Nervesa gas field with Shell Energy Italia. Shares were jumped 7.6% to 15.8p.
Meanwhile, Cloudbuy (LON:CBUY) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of the city of Yiwu in China to help its wholesale marketplace promote itself overseas. Shares climbed 5% to 20p.
Conversely, shares in troubled firm Quindell (LON:QPP) slumped almost 30% to 88p as trading resumed for the first time in more than a month today.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has opened an investigation in the company which is believed to relate to past business and accounting practices at the company.