FTSE 100 slips into the red; BP, Royal Dutch Shell buoyed by oil price rally

• FTSE 100 falls 20 points
• Oilers buoyed by crude rally
• TikTok leases central London office building

5:10pm: Markets wane before the closing bell

The FTSE closed Friday down 20 points, 0.3%, at 6,631, crossing below the flatline in the afternoon. The FTSE 250 lost 335 points, 1.6%, to end the week at 20,961.

“…oil, mining and banking stocks are acting as a solid foundation for the British index,” CMC Markets UK analyst David Madden wrote Friday. “The major eurozone indices are showing losses but they are off the lows of the day thanks to the well-received US non-farm payrolls report. 379,000 jobs were added last month and that hammered economists’ expectations of 182,000. It was a double victory because the January report was revised from 49,000 to 166,000.”

(LON:BP), () and () all improved after prices hit a 14-month high, Madden noted. 

In the US, the Dow was up 59 points, 0.2%, at 30,983 around noon ET. The Nasdaq slumped 140 points, 1.1%, to 12,583, and the S&P 500 ticked down 3 points to 3,765.

“Equity markets were bouncing around but they are now lower,” Madden wrote. “The US 10-year yield has pulled back from the new 1 year high that was set in the wake of the stellar jobs report. There seems to be a little unease in the market as the positive labour update is a double-edged sword. A healthier jobs market bodes well for the recovery but it will also probably bring about inflation pressure – which has a track record of pushing up yields and hurting stocks.”

Friday would be the fourth losing day in a row for the S&P 500 if current trends hold. 

Among the laggards are (), which tumbled more than 9% to $563.27, and Inc (), which slid 5% to $99.45.

3.45pm: BP, buoyed by oil price rally

FTSE 100 trimmed more gains and was up only 16 points to 6,667 before close.

Blue-chip oilers enjoyed an uplift after OPEC triggered a further rally in crude with Thursday’s decision to keep output quotas unchanged in April.

This was despite market expectations for supply to notch up in order to meet demand as the world progresses COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.

Inside OPEC’s unchanged quotas is Saudi’s unilateral 1mln barrel per day cut in volumes, which is now effectively being extended for another month.

In Friday trading, Brent crude was priced above US$68 with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) holding above US$65 a barrel.

() shot up 4% to 324.1p while Plc () climbed 3% to 1,508.4p.

3.25pm: Proactive North America headlines:

Delta 9 Cannabis Inc () () (FRA:V5D1) achieves final milestone in services agreement with cultivation partner Fourth Generation Cannabis

Versus Systems Inc (NASDAQ:VS) () (FRA:BMVB) announces strategic partnership with experiential marketing agency Frias Agency

First Mining Gold Corp () () () files its pre-feasibility study (PFS) for Springpole project in Ontario

Corp () (OCTQB:DXIEF) on the hunt for an “impactful tailwind business”; files 2020 financial statement

Predictmedix Inc () () completes C$1.1M equity financing to scale up its operations

Inc () () (FRA:7LV) closes C$24.9M deal for edibles manufacturer LYF Food Technologies

2.45pm: Wall Street opens in the green after positive jobs data

The Footsie trimmed its gains as the opening bell rang in Wall Street.

London’s leading index advanced 36 points to 6,687, the Dow added 210 points to 31,133 and the Nasdaq recovered earlier losses rising 22 points to 12,746.

According to economists at ING Economics, the strong jobs report for February is only the start as construction is set to rebound when the weather improves.

More state Governors are relaxing COVID-19 containment measures as the vaccine rollout continues at pace, meaning more businesses will start opening up again.

“Jobs growth will then accelerate from April onwards as more and more state Governors follow the lead of Gregg Abbot in Texas and Tate Reeves in Mississippi and re-open their states on the back of rising vaccination…