Melrose manages one cheer but oil-sector peers get a drubbing

OIL and gas shares bore the Scottish brunt of yesterday's huge falls as crude prices fell and investors sold out.

Inside a week, Venture Production has fallen from 12-month highs to 20-month lows, shedding a further 12 per cent, or 81.5p, to 601.5p yesterday. Venture was the hardest hit of a sliding sector, with Dana Petroleum down 5.3 per cent to 1,155p, Cairn Energy falling 8.7 per cent to 2,299p and high flying Aim stock Faroe Petroleum slipping 8.4 per cent to 142p.

Only a potentially significant gas find could boost Melrose Resources, which said it had found at least seven billion cubic feet of gas in Bulgaria. Its shares rose 1.5p to 325.25p. Melrose was one of a very few shares that advanced yesterday.

Thus Group, announcing a contract extension, managed a 1.5p rise to 113p.

Mostly it was carnage. Weir Group announced that Barclays had increased its stake to 5.1 per cent. KBC Peel Hunt reiterated its "buy" stance, but Weir shares fell 6.7 per cent to 671p.

Dresdner Kleinwort put both FirstGroup and Stagecoach among its top transport picks, but the companies fell 6.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively. Aberdeen Asset Management, fresh from major growth in 2007, shed 8.5 per cent to 121p. Robert Wiseman Dairies, strong in recent days, tumbled 8.1 per cent to 489p.