LONDON (ShareCast) - Tullow Oil, Shell and a number of other oil companies were all trading in positive territory on Friday afternoon thanks to a continued rebound in crude prices.
Fears about an oversupply of oil saw West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude drop below $80 a barrel this week, while Brent futures sank to a four-year low of $83.78 a barrel. Oil services stocks have sunk sharply as of late on concerns that depressed oil prices may prompt producers to scale back their project spend.
Oilfield services group Petrofac was also higher after saying it is on track to hit profit targets this year, as its backlog improved over the third quarter and net debt reduced.
Cyclical stock Hargreaves Lansdown was also trading strongly as UK markets recovered from heavy losses earlier in the week.
Credit Suisse lifted Aviva after reiterating its 'outperform' rating and raising its target price from 565p to 575p.
Power systems giant Rolls-Royce saw its shares sink after saying it now expects underlying sales to fall 3.5-4% this year on the back of worsening trading conditions, compared with its previous forecast for no change. It also warned that growth might not return in 2015, as previously expected, with underlying revenue guidance for next year now at +/-3%.
UK building merchant Travis Perkins was also trading lower after reporting that like-for-like sales continued to slow in the third quarter as it saw a "very challenging" plumbing and heating market.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 523.50p +8.18%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,060.00p +7.34%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 920.00p +5.63%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 605.00p +5.22%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 245.10p +5.19%
Royal Mail (RMG) 431.50p +4.58%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 947.00p +4.53%
SABMiller (SAB) 3,286.50p +4.13%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,150.00p +4.07%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 960.50p +4.06%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 834.00p -11.32%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,224.00p -3.56%
Fresnillo (FRES) 798.50p -2.02%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,223.00p -1.37%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,622.00p -0.92%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,188.50p -0.86%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,360.50p -0.44%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 848.00p -0.24%
Next (NXT) 6,550.00p -0.23%
Experian (EXPN) 936.50p -0.21%
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