London’s blue-chip stocks started Friday on a low note, with the low oil price impacting stocks.
A barrel of Brent crude slipped to US$39.52 while West Texas Intermediate dropped to US$36.64.
Connor Campbell, at spread-betting firm Spreadex, said: “With Brent Crude now firmly below US$40 per barrel the European markets had little chance of opening in the green this morning.”
Oil stocks were uniformly in the red, with Shell (LON:RDSB) down 1.6% or 25p to 1,508p while Premier Oil (LON:PMO), on the FTSE250, spilled 8% or 4.5p to 52.6p.
Mining stocks were decidedly mixed, however, with a 2% rebound for copper keeping the heads of Rio Tinto (LON:RIO), Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) and Glencore (LON:GLEN) above water.
They couldn’t boost the FTSE100, however, which lost around 33 points to 6,054.
The Eurozone indices were just as limp as their UK peer this Friday morning, the DAX and CAC falling by 81 and 33 points respectively, with the former hurt by a lower than anticipated German WPI figure.
At the foot of the index was Old Mutual (LON:OML) as investors rushed for the exit following the departure of South African finance minister Nhlanhla Nene.
Nene was held in high regard in business circles but has been fired by President Jacob Zuma, for the relatively unknown David van Rooyen.
Shares in the Anglo-African financial services company dropped 6.8% to 162p, while miners including Anglo American (LON:AAL), down 2.2% to 311p, were hit by the news.
Away from the index, International Personal Finance (LON:IPF) plummeted after a statement made late last night warning it could be hit by new legislation in Slovakia.
The Slovak parliament voted to adopt "previously undiscussed" proposals to amend various pieces of consumer legislation. Shares dropped 26.5% or 85p to 237p.
In the small cap world, proximity marketing specialist Proxama (LON:PROX) signed a two-year contract with a North American bank to establish 10,000 mobile touch points across the US and Canada.
Jon Worley, the head of Proxama’s marketing division, said to his knowledge it was the first large scale network of its kind in the banking sector. Shares rocketed 16.7% to 0.5p.
Conversely, Forte Energy (LON:FTE) plummeted around 28% to 0.02p as DCarwin Capital converted £50,000 of its loan into 1.1mln shares. The remaining loan balance stands at £650,000.
Elsewhere, security firm Digital Barriers (LON:DGB) has inked a deal to buy US surveillance firm Brimtek.
The deal, worth around £29.4mln, is being funded by the issuing of 80mln shares at 34p, the company said. Shares dropped 18.6% to 41.5p.