Egypt continues to weigh on FTSE, oils firm

The top price index continued to feel the effects of the political chaos in Egypt but the effects were reduced by strength in the price of crude oil. By the close of the session, the FTSE had stopped the rot with just a small slide of 0.3 per cent to 5862.

Chris Bradshaw
shareprices.com - Monday, January 31, 2011

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With the impact of the unrest in Egypt driving the FTSE 100 down by 1.4 per cent on Friday, travel firms felt the force of the disruption on Monday with the sector seeing heavy losses. TUI Travel dropped 2.6 per cent with other travel groups Thomas Cook and International Consolidated Airlines Group losing 3.1 and 1.8 per cent.

With their exposure to any kind of global disturbance, banks performed poorly with the RBS Group the worst hit, shedding 2.4 per cent.

However, support was provided to index by the price of crude oil holding, despite concerns that the troubles could spread across the area responsible for providing more than a third of the oil produced in the world.

BG Group was the day's top riser with gains of 5 per cent as its gas production continued despite suspension of its Egyptian operation due to the protests which saw a rapid drop in its price on Friday. The only notable exception in the sector was BP with investors nervous about the forthcoming results for the fourth quarter, due to be released on Tuesday.

The miners also followed suit with the sector strengthening overall. Xstrata led the way with a gain of 2.2 per cent with bid and merger speculation pushing the price upwards.

 

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