London shares end flat as oils slide
Leading shares ended the day little changed, with a tepid opening on Wall Street and a drift for the heavyweight oil stocks offsetting rallies for stocks including Hays and Lloyds TSB, dealers said.
The FTSE 100 index ended a quiet session down 1.6 points to 4,094.9. The index had peaked at 4,118.4 and hit a low of 4,069.3 within its first two hours of trade.
But much of the steam was taken out of trading in midmorning, when minutes released from the Bank of England's November Monetary Policy Committee suggested a near-term rate cut is unlikely.
The MPC voted 7 to 2 in favour of holding its key interest rate at 4.0%.
All the wider FTSE indices were fractionally weaker by the close of trade, although disappointing news from PizzaExpress and Bodycote led the midcaps to underperform. The FTSE 250 index down 25.3 points to 4,439.5.
Volume was slimmer than recent days, with 2.1 billion shares changing hands in 138,438 deals.
Meanwhile On Wall Street, the DJIA was up 52.78 points to 8,527.97 and the Nasdaq composite was up 23.9 to 1,298, with the latter aided by a bounce in semiconductor stocks.
However, sentiment across the Atlantic was dampened after US housing starts were revealed to have fallen by a much larger-than-expected 11.4% in October.
Hays led London's blue-chip risers, surging nearly 8% after comments from the business services group's new chief executive fuelled hopes it will break up.
Hays' also said today its trading outlook and earnings forecasts for current trading remain unchanged.
Lloyds TSB led the banking stocks after hosting an analysts' meeting yesterday where management talked down fears the group's dividend would be cut.
On the downside, oil stocks were on offer the prospect of a war in Iraq was seen to diminish after Iraq's undertaking to cooperate with UN arms inspectors.
Among the midcaps, Bodycote was hit by a profit warning, while PizzaExpress slumped following the the breakdown of talks to take the restaurant chain private.
