LONDON (AFP) — Leading shares closed flat on Tuesday, with commodity stocks gaining as oil prices stayed near record highs, offsetting weakness in airlines and financials.
At the close, the FTSE 100 index was 0.3 points weaker at 6,215.2, off a low of 6,155.9 and a high of 6,233.7.
Vodafone was the most traded stock, seeing 130 million units change hands, followed by Centrica, which saw 73.50 million shares switch owners.
Over in the United States, Wall Street remained weaker after mortgage lender Fannie Mae, housebuilder D.R. Horton and Swiss bank UBS reported quarterly losses and as record crude oil prices pulled stocks lower.
Among blue chips in Britain, oil producers enjoyed gains, with Tullow Oil the top performer, surging more than 24 percent or 183.50 pence to close at 943.50 on high oil prices and news of an oil find.
Tullow said a "significant" column of light oil has been intersected at the Mahogany-2 well in the Jubilee field offshore Ghana, suggesting the company was right to believe this is a significant discovery. It added this is likely to lead to a "material" upgrade of current resource estimates.
The news prompted analysts at ABN Amro to raise their price target to 835 pence from 700 and reiterate their 'buy' advice, while Davy Stockbrokers increased their target to 920 pence from 820, saying the announcement suggests reserves are 1 billion barrels or double earlier projections.
New York-traded West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery was up 5 cents to 120.02 dollars a barrel, having earlier hit a fresh record high of 120.93 dollars a barrel.
The day's second-best performer was BG Group, up 89 pence -- or 7.06 percent -- to close at 1350.
On the downside, drug maker Shire was the day's worst performer, down 42.50 pence -- or 4.62 percent -- to close at 876.50, ahead of a U.S. committee hearing due on Thursday on its consumer ADHD drugs, market sources said.
The day's second-biggest loser was Home Retail, which lost 11.75 pence -- or 4.41 percent -- to close at 254.75.
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