LONDON (ShareCast) - The UK stock market opened tentatively on Tuesday, with declines in the energy sector offsetting some well-received results from blue chips Legal & General, Associated British Foods and Imperial Tobacco.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 6,503 in early deals.

However, upside was being limited by falls from a number of oil majors as the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell to a three-year low.

Saudi Arabia lowered prices for crude exports to US customers ahead of US government data due out on Wednesday which is expected to show that stockpiles rose by 1.9m barrels last week. WTI futures were down as much as 2% at $77.20 a barrel on Tuesday, a level not seen since October 2011.

After closing at its highest level in four weeks on Friday (6,546.47), the FTSE 100 fell 0.9% on Monday after manufacturing purchasing managers' indices (PMIs) from China and the Eurozone disappointed. "After the strong gains seen in equity markets at the end of last week it was probably inevitable that we got a little bit of a pull-back yesterday," said analyst Michael Hewson from CMC Markets UK.

The focus of Wednesday's session is likely to be on the Markit/CIPS UK construction PMI due out at 09:30, which is predicted to have fallen to 63.5 in October from 64.2 in September. Nevertheless, this will still be the 12th straight month above 60.

Oil stocks fall; L&G, AB Foods and Imperial impress

Oil and gas producers Tullow Oil, Shell, BP, BG Group, Premier Oil and Ophir Energy were among the worst performers on Tuesday as stocks tracked oil prices lower. Oil services peers Hunting and Petrofac were also out of favour.

Insurance and pensions group Legal & General rose after saying it racked up record annuity sales of £3.9bn in the first nine months of the year despite British government changes that have relaxed obligations on people to buy annuities to save for their retirement.

Full-year earnings and dividends from Associated British Foods were up 6% on the prior year despite revenues falling 3%. Shares were higher early on after the company hailed a "magnificent" year for its Primark clothing chain where oeprating profits jumped 30%.

Cigarette maker Imperial Tobacco was also higher as it hailed rising demand for key brands such as Davidoff, JPS and Lambert & Butler and said it it was boosting its annual dividend by 10% to 128.1p a share.

Spirit Pub Company was in demand after British brewer and pub group Greene King made a firm £773.6m takeover bid, upping the pressure on rival suitor C&C.



Market Movers
techMARK 2,774.16 +0.30%
FTSE 100 6,503.33 +0.24%
FTSE 250 15,501.51 +0.31%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Schroders (SDR) 2,454.00p +2.68%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 3,797.00p +2.62%
TUI Travel (TT.) 415.50p +2.34%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 235.50p +2.12%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,722.00p +2.06%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 959.40p +1.91%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,050.00p +1.65%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,060.00p +1.53%
Standard Life (SL.) 390.90p +1.51%
Fresnillo (FRES) 705.50p +1.51%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 475.20p -1.68%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,246.00p -1.58%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,496.00p -1.58%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,066.00p -1.30%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,169.50p -1.21%
Experian (EXPN) 920.00p -1.13%
BG Group (BG.) 1,024.50p -1.11%
BP (BP.) 438.80p -1.10%
BAE Systems (BA.) 454.70p -0.66%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,503.00p -0.40%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Man Group (EMG) 128.30p +3.97%
Homeserve (HSV) 353.30p +3.49%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 53.65p +2.68%
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 290.50p +2.22%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 127.70p +2.08%
African Barrick Gold (ABG) 212.10p +1.97%
Investec (INVP) 574.50p +1.68%
Lonmin (LMI) 176.10p +1.67%
NMC Health (NMC) 495.00p +1.58%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 383.10p +1.56%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hunting (HTG) 707.00p -3.55%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 911.00p -3.09%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 650.00p -2.99%
Greene King (GNK) 784.50p -2.97%
Afren (AFR) 73.10p -2.73%
Premier Oil (PMO) 250.10p -2.53%
Regus (RGU) 190.60p -2.26%
Amec (AMEC) 1,033.00p -2.18%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 186.00p -2.05%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,252.00p -1.62%

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