Markets: Commodities call shots in the City

The Aberdeen-based company was up 18 per cent at 109.8p on the Alternative Investment Market, with Norwegian state-controlled oil firm Statoil top of the list of those said to be eyeing a stake in the operations.

Sam Wahab, an analyst at Seymour Pierce, said: “The shares have been ramping up recently as the company has been doing flow tests at the well and results so far have been good.”

He said Bentley’s heavy oil reserves were very similar to Statoil’s Bressay field, so a tie-up may be appealing.

In the top flight, commodities trader Glencore was the biggest faller, with a drop of 15.5p to 368.5p as another major investor lined up against the proposed takeover of miner Xstrata.

Other miners also dragged on the market as fears about growth in China depressed commodity prices. The FTSE-100 index fell 32.2 points to 5,743.5, with Rio Tinto down 88.5p to 2,773.5p and Anglo American off 49.5p to 1,816p.

Scottish engineering firm Weir Group, which sells pumps and valves to the miners, was down nearly 3 per cent at 1,635p. However, Scots utility company SSE was among the risers after broker Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock from “neutral” to “buy” in the wake of its recent domestic tariff increase. Shares were 15p higher at 1,372p, while Centrica was up by 1.9p to 329.5p in expectation that other domestic electricity and gas suppliers will soon follow SSE’s lead.

Outsourcing firm Serco posted an 8 per cent rise in half-year profit before tax to £120.5 million but share gains were held back by ongoing concerns over the impact of challenging conditions in the US. Adjusted profits fell by 17 per cent and the stock rose by just 3.5p to 566p.

NEW YORK: Stocks edged higher in another day of muted action as economic data did little to spark investor interest before Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak tomorrow. A week of crucial economic data lies ahead.

The Dow was up 4.49 points at 13,107.48.