MONDAY MARKET CLOSE: Santa’s spirit keeps FTSE rally going

The traditional seasonal rally continued today as traders looked for bargains amid a tumultuous oil market.

Glasgow-based Weir Group was down 31p

Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC, said: “Stock markets rose alongside oil and the Russian rouble in early trading but as oil prices faded equities held onto gains.

“It was the energy sector that felt the about-face in oil prices. In the UK, energy went from being one of the top performing sectors to the worst with Tullow Oil and Weir Group two of the hardest hit as the day progressed.”

The FTSE 100 Index closed 31.47 points higher at 6,576.74, although it been firmly above the 6,600 level during the morning session.

Glasgow-based Weir Group was down 31p at 1,874p, while Tullow dropped 17.2p to 407p and oilfield services group Petrofac shed 18p to 704.5p.

The short-lived oil price boost in the morning did help industry heavyweights BP and Shell, although both pared their gains. BP ended the session just 0.6p ahead at 413.6p though Shell managed a 1 per cent, or 23p, rise to 2,245.5p.

Gold was also on the back foot, ensuring the precious metal miners a place on the fallers’ board. Randgold Resources dropped 281p to 4,150p and Fresnillo slipped 25p to 714p.

B&Q owner Kingfisher rose 5.9p to 330.1p after it sold a 70 per cent stake in its loss-making China business to Beijing-based Wumei Holdings for £140 million.

And there was more woe for Tesco after the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) announced that it will focus on financial figures reported and prepared by Britain’s biggest supermarket and its auditor, PwC. Shares were down 2 per cent, or 4.4p at 181p, as the FRC said it had launched a probe into Tesco’s financial statements in the financial years ending in 2012, 2013 and 2014.