ondon’s top index dropped to a fresh one-month low on Wednesday, after a week of heavy losses amid global instability.
The FTSE 100 ended the day down 0.8%, or 57.71 points, to 7,412.45.
It was a fall led in part by the struggles of Shell and BP. The oil companies were not the biggest fallers on the day, but as two of the most valuable components of the FTSE, they have an outsized influence on its performance.
By the end of the day Shell’s shares were down 2.3% while BP had lost 3.2% as oil prices dipped around 3.4% to 87.84 dollars.
“The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 have both underperformed, with the FTSE 100 sliding to three-week lows on the back of weakness in crude oil as well as metals prices, with copper prices sliding to their lowest levels this year, and Brent crude prices falling to one-month lows,” said Michael Hewson, an analyst at CMC Markets.
“BP and Shell are acting as a major drag, along with tobacco.”
Imperial Brands, the company behind Golden Virginia and Rizla, struggled after the Prime Minister announced a plan which would effectively ban today’s young teenagers from ever buying cigarettes.
Mr Hewson said: “Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco have come under pressure on today’s announcement that the UK will raise the legal smoking age over time, although it can’t have been too much of a surprise to see it confirmed given recent briefings.
“There will also be restrictions on the purchase of vaping products to children, looking at flavours, packaging as well as disposability, meaning that the industry is likely to feel the pressure on both sides of its business.”
In New York the S&P 500 gained 0.5% and the Dow Jones was up 0.2% shortly after trading ended in London.
Frankfurt’s Dax index closed up 0.1% while the Cac 40 in Paris was flat.
In company news, Tesco upped its profit guidance for the year, saying that retail adjusted operating profit, its preferred measure, will now come in at between £2.6-2.7 billion.
It was higher than a previously forecast £2.5 billion and came after sales rose nearly 9% to £30.75 billion in the first half of the financial year.
Adjusted operating profit was up 14% to £1.5 billion in the same period, Tesco said.
Elsewhere, shares in car dealership Pendragon fell by 6.7% after an afternoon update on the bidding war for the company. A joint offer from Hedin and PAG International was not forthcoming, despite the company earlier receiving interest from the firms.
But there are still other bidders in the running to buy the firm, including US firm Lithia Motors, which had bid around £397 million.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were IAG, up 6.45p to 151.25p, Tesco, up 11.1p to 270.7p, Aviva, up 12.1p to 387.7p, Smurfit Kappa, up 64p to 2,716p, and Sainsbury’s, up 5.7p to 254.1p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Whitbread, down 129p to 3,286p, Entain, down 34.6p to 902.6p, BAE Systems, down 37p to 978p, BP, down 16.35p to 499.45p, and Fresnillo, down 16.4p to 520.4p.