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Oil price plunge hits energy shares | Oil price plunge hits energy shares |
(about 2 hours later) | |
(Close): Shares in energy stocks fell further on Friday as investors continued to react to the sharp fall in oil prices following Thursday's Opec meeting. | |
The oil producers' cartel said it would maintain production at current levels. | The oil producers' cartel said it would maintain production at current levels. |
Shares in BG Group fell 8.7% and oil giant BP dropped 1.4% having been lower earlier in the day. | |
But overall the FTSE 100 index closed just fractionally lower by 0.01% or 0.8 points at 6722.62. | |
After falling by more than $5 a barrel on Thursday, Brent crude fell further to hit $71.12 a barrel - before recovering to $72.20. | |
The prospect of cheaper fuel boosted airline shares at first on hopes that fuel bills would be cut. However, some of the early gains were erased. Easyjet was up 1.2%, but shares in British Airways owner IAG were 0.07% lower at the close. | |
Shares in BT Group were up 4.9p at 410.20p, a rise of 1.2%. On Thursday, the Reuters news agency reported that Hutchison Whampoa, the owner of UK mobile operator 3 Group, was preparing to bid for the EE or O2 mobile businesses. BT Group is currently in talks with both EE and O2 about a possible takeover. | |
Retail shares rose as the Black Friday sales saw frenzied scenes in UK stores and heavy demand online. Sports Direct shares rose 2.5% and Argos owner Home Retail Group climbed 3.09%. | |
On the currency markets, the pound fell 0.63% against the dollar to $1.56370 and dropped 0.38% against the euro to €1.2573. |