FTSE held back by slump in mining

Falling oil prices offered support for the FTSE 100 yesterday, but hefty declines among miners limited gains in the top tier.

The top flight index closed almost one point higher at 5,974.76 after a strong opening session on Wall Street inspired a fightback from losses of more than 50 points at one stage.

Ben Critchley, sales trader at IG Index, said: "Also dampening the mood was the British Chambers of Commerce, which downgraded its forecast for UK GDP growth in 2011 to 1.4 per cent (from 1.9 per cent previously].

"Further afield, news that Opec was considering increasing output initially quelled the rising price of oil, but mixed signals throughout the trading day caused oil prices to fluctuate."

The price of Brent crude, which has surged in recent weeks, slipped to about $112 from the $118 per barrel seen on Monday. The dollar gained strength as oil prices dropped, with the pound down slightly against the US dollar at $1.61.

Falling gold prices and disappointing full-year results from miner Antofagasta sent shares down across the heavily-weighted sector.

Antofagasta sank 3 per cent, or 38p, to 1,382p in spite of a 57.5 per cent increase in net earnings to $1.1 billion (680 million). Analysts said the results were at the lower end of expectations and other miners followed its decline. Kazakhmys was down 42p at 1,406p, while Fresnillo was off 31p at 1,602p.

Softer gold prices sent Randgold Resources to the top of the fallers' board, losing 400p at 4,480p, while African Barrick Gold was not far behind, down 20.5p at 547.5p.

Elsewhere on the list of fallers, Scottish engineering firm Weir dropped despite posting a 58 per cent jump in full-year profits and expressing confidence in 2011 prospects.

The volatile oil price hit the firm, which supplies its products to a range of energy giants, while a rise in net debt also contributed to shares falling almost 5 per cent, or 84p, to 1,695p.

Some support was given to the Footsie from well-received full-year results from Old Mutual, which sent the South African financial services firm to the top of the risers' board with a gain of 4.4p to 137.7p.

It was joined on the way up by BT Group and Vodafone, ahead 7.3p to 191.1p and 3.15p to 181.85p respectively, after Morgan Stanley upgraded its recommendation on the European telecoms sector.

Outside the top flight, shares in set-top box maker Pace dived after its chief executive warned that a major order from a US customer had been pushed back. Shares were 20 per cent lower, down 44.1p at 176.4p.

But film studio group Pinewood Shepperton leapt more than 4 per cent after the company posted a 31 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to 5.8m for last year. Its shares were 6.4p higher at 153p.

Among the Scottish stocks, BPI was up nearly 6 per cent yesterday after posting results on Monday showing it had passed on oil-related costs to customers.Shares rose 15p to 270p.

Scottish & Southern Energy was up 5p at 1,220p after announcing that it would scale back a planned power station in Wales and release electricity transmission entry capacity rights relating to the site.