N Sea news manages to Xcite the City

SHARES in North Sea oil company Xcite leapt 18 per cent yesterday after it said the well it has staked its money on had cleared another hurdle on the way to full production.

The Aberdeen-based firm, which holds exclusive licences for the Bentley field, is studying the way the notoriously-heavy oil flows before it starts development.

It said: “The company is pleased to announce that the pre-production flow test is progressing well.”

Shares added 12p to close at 79.5p on a day when the London market only just kept its head above water. After spending much of the session in the red, the FTSE 100 index closed just 0.4 points higher at 5,664.5.

Temporary power provider Aggreko was among the biggest fallers, down more than 4 per cent after US customer Cummins reduced its revenue forecasts in the face of the global economic slowdown. Aggreko’s shares lost 89p at 1,993p. It was joined on the fallers board by fellow Glasgow firm Weir Group, down 63p at 1,516p, after Opec said world oil demand growth will slow in 2013.

But the bottom spot was reserved for fashion brand Burberry after it issued a disappointing trading update. Like-for-like sales growth of 6 per cent only marginally missed City forecasts, but nervous investors saw the news as the latest sign of waning consumer confidence and sold the stock, which was down 95p or 7.4 per cent at 1,189p.

Would-be partners Glencore and Xstrata were among the risers after the latter said it was postponing a vote on their merger until September, allowing for time to negotiate with shareholders who threatened to vote down the deal. Xstrata was up 12.5p to 839p , while Glencore added 5.8p at 316.3p.

NEW YORK: Major indices slipped last night as minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s June meeting showed it was open to the idea of more economic stimulus, but that conditions might need to worsen first.

The Dow Jones industrial average declined 48.59 points, or 0.38 per cent, to end at 12,604.53 while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index inched down just 0.02 of a point to finish at 1,341.45. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 14.35 points, or 0.49 per cent, to close at 2,887.98.