FTSE 100 declines as oil and gas stocks tumble, Asian markets trade mixed as Sensex touches record intra-day high

Asian stocks are trading mixed while Sensex has given up its opening gains

The fall in oil majors came after Brent’s decline following reports of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had reached a compromise in OPEC over their ongoing oil policy dispute

London’s FTSE 100 dropped heavily on Thursday, dragged by energy stocks, as they tracked falling oil prices. Drugmakers also declined, pushing the index to the worst levels of the week.

The blue-chip index fell by over 1 per cent or 79 points to close down to 7012. Film company Cineworld dropped by almost 10 per cent while Tullow oil and Just Eat Takeaway lost 9 per cent each. However, the Prague-based cybersecurity company Avast saw a major 18 per cent share price surge after reports of its potential merger with US software company NortonLifeLock.

The fall in oil majors came after Brent’s decline following reports of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia had reached a compromise in OPEC over their ongoing oil policy dispute.

With oil and gas stocks tumbling worldwide, the pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down by 1 per cent, while France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX also declined around a per cent.

The US stocks also tumbled on Thursday despite positive second-quarter earnings results posted by companies, as S&P 500 dipped 0.3 per cent. While the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.7 per cent but the Dow Jones Industrials Average added about 0.16 per cent.

Asia-Pacific stocks opened mixed on Friday following the global sentiment, as Nikkei trades 0.8 per cent down by midday, while Shanghai Composite seems to be recovering from day’s lows to near the flatline. Hang Seng advanced 0.4 per cent by noon local time.

Mumbai’s Sensex surged over a hundred points after Friday opening and reached an intra-day record high despite weak global trends, helped by gains in heavyweight Reliance and HDFC. However, the index gave up its gains soon after and is trading in the red.

A similar trend can be seen in Nifty which has lost its opening gains and is trading around the flatline.