By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. stocks slumped Friday, pushing the
FTSE 100 benchmark to its worst weekly drop in more than three
years.
The FTSE 100 fell 2.5% to 6,300.63, a fifth consecutive decline,
rounding out a week when oil prices tumbled to five-year lows and
investors continued to fret about slower global growth. The London
benchmark slumped 6.6% for the week, the largest such drop since
August 2011, according to FactSet.
The markets are wrestling with the question of whether lower oil
prices are a symptom or a cure for weak global demand, said Laith
Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, in a note Friday.
While the answer is probably a mix of both, the "restorative
qualities of a lower oil price are going to take some time to feed
through, and, in the meantime, markets are focusing on the
negatives."
The oil and gas group fell 3.2% on Friday, led by oil-services
provider Petrofac Ltd. , whose shares have taken a beating as of
late. They lost 6.4% on Friday, their seventh decline in the past
eight sessions. The shares lost 12.9% for the week. They are also
driving toward a 45% yearly drop, which would mark their worst year
since they began trading in 2005.
Among miners, Randgold Resources PLC gave up 2.6% and Anglo
American PLC fell 3.2%. Citi analysts said Anglo American's free
cash flow in 2015 "will remain under pressure even if we see some
recovery in commodity prices from here."
Only shares of two companies in the FTSE 100 ended higher:
utility companies United Utilities PLC and Severn Trent PLC rose
2.9% and 0.5%, respectively.
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