FTSE 100 movers: Oil stocks gain as crude prices rebound

Oil and gas stocks were advancing on Friday after a strong rebound in crude prices, with Tullow Oil, BP, Shell and BG Group putting in decent gains.

Brent futures were up 2.7% at $60.85 a barrel on the back of optimistic comments about future demand from Saudi Arabia’s oil minister. The price dropped to $59.27 a barrel on Thursday, its lowest level since May 2009.

Supermarket peers Tesco, WM Morrison and J Sainsbury were also on the rise, extending gains made over the past few sessions.

Power generator and retailer SSE was in the red after admitting it has not won all the generation business it wanted in a UK energy generation capacity auction.

Broadband and pay-TV giant Sky was lower after Westhouse Securities downgraded its rating on the stock from ‘add’ to ‘neutral’, saying that the shares are “fully valued following a good run”.

Technology firm Smiths Group was also out of favour after revealing that its long-running boss Philip Bowman will step down at the end of 2015.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 415.90p +4.76%
Tesco (TSCO) 183.50p +4.38%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,349.00p +2.47%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 174.00p +2.35%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 457.90p +2.19%
BP (BP.) 410.20p +1.90%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,564.00p +1.89%
3i Group (III) 444.40p +1.83%
Aviva (AV.) 489.30p +1.81%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 735.00p +1.80%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Old Mutual (OML) 185.90p -2.11%
TUI AG Reg Shs (Post- 16/12/14)(DI) (TUIJ) 1,088.00p -1.89%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 423.70p -1.78%
CRH (CRH) 1,507.00p -1.70%
Next (NXT) 6,450.00p -1.68%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,068.00p -1.66%
SSE (SSE) 1,621.00p -1.64%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,605.00p -1.64%
Sky (SKY) 885.50p -1.61%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,312.00p -1.37%