By Sara Sjolin and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch Stagecoach rallies
after winning East Coast rail contract
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Oil stocks in London sold off Thursday
after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided
not to cut its oil-production target.
The FTSE's oil and gas group slid 3.9% after OPEC said the
12-country cartel will stick with its current production target of
30 million barrels a day. Leading up to the meeting in Vienna,
there was speculation in the markets that the organization would
bring in a reduction, in an effort to stop a recent drop in global
oil prices.
The decision to keep the target was made "in the interest of
restoring market equilibrium," said OPEC in a statement.
U.S. crude-oil futures (CLF5) hit a four-and-a-half year low
below $68 a barrel following OPEC's statement, weighing on the
FTSE's oil stocks.
Shares of Tullow Oil PLC tumbled 7.2% and those of Petrofac Ltd.
dropped 6.2%. BG Group PLC sloughed off 5.9%. Also, Royal Dutch
Shell PLC (RDSB) fell 4.3%, and BP PLC (BP) declined 2.7%.
The FTSE 100 fell 0.1% to 6,723.42, with the loss limited in
part by gains in shares of travel companies, which can be sensitive
to oil prices. EasyJet PLC shares flew up 5.8% despite a ratings
downgrade at RBC Capital Markets Thursday, to sector perform from
outperform. British Airways's parent International Consolidated
Airlines Group rallied 4.9%, and TUI Travel PLC tacked on 3.9%.
Also higher were shares of Barclays PLC (BCS), rising 2.5% after
Goldman Sachs lifted its rating on the bank to buy from
neutral.
Outside the main benchmark, Stagecoach Group PLC jumped 8.2%
after the transportation operator, in collaboration with Virgin,
won the franchise to run the East Coast rail route.
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