By Sara Sjolin and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch Stagecoach rallies
after winning East Coast rail contract
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Oil stocks in London sold off Thursday
after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided
not to cut its oil-production target.
The FTSE's oil and gas group slid 3.4% after OPEC said the
12-country cartel will stick with its current production target of
30 million barrels a day. Leading up to the meeting in Vienna,
there was speculation in the markets that the organization would
bring in a reduction, in an effort to stop a recent drop in global
oil prices.
The decision to keep the target was made "in the interest of
restoring market equilibrium," said OPEC in a statement.
Crude-oil (CLF5) sank nearly 4% to $70.93 a barrel following
OPEC's statement, weighing on the FTSE's oil stocks.
Shares of Petrofac Ltd. dropped 6.1%, Tullow Oil PLC lost 4% and
BG Group PLC sloughed off 4.4%. Also, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB)
fell 3.7%, and BP PLC (BP) declined 2.4%.
The FTSE 100 was down 4 points at 6,725.18, with the loss
limited in part by gains in shares of travel companies, which can
be sensitive to oil prices. EasyJet PLC popped up 5.7% despite a
ratings downgrade at RBC Capital Markets Thursday ,to sector
perform from outperform. British Airways's parent International
Consolidated Airlines Group rallied 4.7%, and TUI Travel PLC tacked
on 3.5%,
Also higher were shares of Barclays PLC (BCS), rising 2.8% after
Goldman Sachs lifted its rating on the bank to buy from
neutral.
Outside the main benchmark, Stagecoach Group PLC jumped 8.1%
after the transportation operator, in collaboration with Virgin,
won the franchise to run the East Coast rail route.
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