London’s blue-chip stocks just about managed to hold on to yesterday’s gains as it slipped back throughout the afternoon.
The FTSE100 was hit by the opening of market on Wall Street, where indices quickly turned south.
The Dow Jones opened off 43 points at 16,242, the S&P 500 down three points at 1,918 and the NASDAQ Composite 20 points weaker at 4,601.
Expectations of a firm start on Wall Street were quickly dashed by a disappointing manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) report for September.
The PMI declined to 50.2 from 51.1, and although a value above 50 still indicates expansion, economists had been expecting the fall to be more gentle to around 50.8.
Conversely, even though China enjoyed a long weekend with bank holidays today and tomorrow, the country posted mildly positive manufacturing PMI data that has contributed to the upturn in index’s performance.
The PMI showed a reading of 49.8, while the estimates were to remain stable at 49.7, representing the first increase after three months of consecutive declines.
By the end of the day, the FTSE 100 was just 10 points to the good at 6,072 as the US data wiped out most of the gains made after the china PMI.
Still, following the worst quarterly performance in four years, the UK’s main index at least started the new quarter on the right footing.
Alastair McCaig at IG said: “traders have got off to a mildly optimistic start with a combination of mining, oil and gas companies pulling the index higher.”
Oil giants rose despite flat crude prices. BP (LON:BP.) gained 8p to 342p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) increased 41p to 1,604p as the price of a barrel of Brent crude rose remained around US$48.30.
The oil firms rose on the back of Tullow Oil (LON:TLW), which revealed it had come out unscathed from a six-monthly review of its reserves based lending.
The oil firm therefore still has some US$3.7bn of debt capacity. Shares rose almost 10% to 185p.
Away from oil, Meat producer Cranswick (LON:CWK) sizzled 93p to 1,689p after first-half revenue came in slightly above its expectations.
In the small cap space, Ortac Resources (LON:OTC) lifted by more than three quarters, up 0.03p at 0.08p, as it said Zambian copper explorer Zamsort, in which it had acquired secured convertible loan notes, had raised a further US$2mln from Kopara Investments.
Also higher was Regency Mines (LON:RGM) which gained around 40% to 0.03p as it wielded the axe on its overheads as part of a continued effort to cut back on costs.
Conversely, Caza Oil & Gas (LON:CAZA) fell 50% to 0.75p after saying it was at an advanced stage of talks over a potential equity financing.