Markets: North Sea rumours Xcite the market

The firm, which is awaiting approval from the UK government to begin drilling on its Bentley field in the North Sea, will launch an oil rig from Dundee today and will present details of its production plans.

Xcite closed up 17.5p at 130p, just days after analysts at Seymour Pierce named the firm – alongside Aberdeen-based peer Faroe Petroleum – as its “top picks” in the North Sea.

Faroe ended the day up 1p at 163.5p, regaining some of the ground lost on Monday when it revealed one of its exploration wells in Norwegian waters had failed to find any oil or gas.

The FTSE 100 index was in positive territory for much of the session but dipped in late trading to close down 7.71 points at 5,892.16 as rumours spread that eurozone officials were considering delaying the second Greek bail-out until after the troubled country holds elections in April.

Richard Batty, a strategist at Standard Life Investments, said: “The market does not like it – if Greece cannot get a bailout by mid-March it effectively has a messy default.”

A number of heavyweight stocks turned ex-dividend, meaning buyers will now miss out on their latest payouts.

Oil giants BP and Shell fell 7.4p to 487.4p and 30p to 2,331.5p respectively, with drug makers AstraZeneca and Glaxo- SmithKline dropping 119.5p to 2,898p and 19p to 1,421p respectively.

Miners also suffered as metal prices fell and analysts at Citi switched to a bearish stance on the sector. Anglo American closed 82p lower at 2,690p.

NEW YORK: Wall Street closed lower last night for the third session in four, with market direction largely dictated by the swings in shares of Apple, the world’s largest company by market value.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended the day down 97.11 points, or 0.75 per cent, at 12,781.17 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 Index closed down 7.25 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 1,343.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 16.00 points, or 0.55 per cent, at 2,915.83.