LONDON (ShareCast) - UK stocks plummeted to levels not seen in nearly two months on Friday as weak global economic data and an ongoing sell-off of crude oil hammered market sentiment.
The FTSE 100 settled at just 6,300.63 by the end of trade, down an eye-watering 2.5% on the day, with just four constituents on the index finishing in positive territory. The benchmark has not closed below this level since 20 October.
Five straight days of losses have wiped 6.6% off the value of the Footsie, its worst weekly drop since September 2011.
Energy shares were faring the worst as oil prices collapsed further to their lowest levels since mid-2009. West Texas Intermediate futures dropped to below $58 a barrel, while Brent dropped to a low of $62.28.
"The rise in the supply of US crude oil has put downward pressure on prices but of greater concern is the influence of a global slowdown on demand," said analyst Jasper Lawler from CMC Markets UK. "Another forecast-cut from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for 2015 oil demand was justified by a bigger slump than expected in Chinese and Japanese factory growth."
A raft of economic data was released in China overnight. While retail sales and fixed asset investment figures were largely in line with forecasts, Chinese industrial production growth slowed more than expected from 7.7% to 7.2% year-on-year. The consensus forecast was for an annual increase of 7.5%.
The monthly increase in Eurozone industrial production also slowed down to just 0.1% in October from 0.5% the month before, missing the 0.2% estimate.
Meanwhile, UK construction output unexpectedly dropped by 2.2% over the month of October, erasing September's 2.2% gain. Analysts had expected growth to slow down to 0.7%.
Energy stocks and insurers tank
Stocks related to the oil sector such as Petrofac, Nostrum Oil & Gas, Premier Oil, Hunting, BP, Shell and Tullow Oil finished with steep losses as crude prices continued to fall.
Insurance stocks also bore the brunt of the sell-off, such as Aviva, St James's Place and Standard Life.
Oil and gas engineer Weir, however, was bouncing back after recent declines following an upgrade by Canaccord Genuity from 'hold' to 'buy'. The broker said the stock's valuation now looks "compelling" after having fallen by over a third over the past three months alone.
Utility stocks were mixed with United Utilities and Severn Trent gaining despite Ofwat's announcement that average water bills will drop by 5% by 2019-2020. However, SSE was lower after it was named as one of the three energy providers being fined a combined £4.6m by Ofgem for failing to meet environmental targets.
Meanwhile, power station group Drax was a heavy faller on the back of plans to change biomass subsidies in the UK. The stock was trading at two-year low.
Shares of telecoms giant BT were lower amid speculation that the firm will soon decide whether it wants to buy Telefonica's UK mobile network O2 or opt for Orange and Deutsche Telekom's EE.
Market Movers
techMARK 2,860.02 -1.82%
FTSE 100 6,300.63 -2.49%
FTSE 250 15,377.10 -1.83%
FTSE 100 - Risers
United Utilities Group (UU.) 903.00p +3.56%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,937.00p +1.15%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 227.50p +0.53%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,699.00p +0.24%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 678.00p -6.35%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,256.00p -5.42%
Aviva (AV.) 468.00p -3.92%
St James's Place (STJ) 775.00p -3.79%
Standard Life (SL.) 391.60p -3.57%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 215.30p -3.43%
Schroders (SDR) 2,553.00p -3.41%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,520.00p -3.37%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,031.50p -3.35%
BT Group (BT.A) 397.40p -3.33%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 91.30p +6.91%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 52.55p +5.00%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 73.00p +2.53%
Soco International (SIA) 248.50p +2.10%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 347.20p +1.97%
IP Group (IPO) 219.00p +1.86%
Card Factory (CARD) 268.50p +1.70%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 119.20p +1.36%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 359.60p +1.18%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 805.00p +1.13%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Drax Group (DRX) 508.50p -9.92%
Carillion (CLLN) 314.00p -8.72%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 469.90p -7.68%
Premier Oil (PMO) 156.80p -7.16%
Hunting (HTG) 471.10p -7.08%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 295.30p -6.02%
EnQuest (ENQ) 33.82p -5.53%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 587.00p -5.17%
Mitie Group (MTO) 265.30p -4.88%
Afren (AFR) 34.44p -4.86%
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