Oil price fall hits energy stocks
- Published
(Close): London's main share market ended Tuesday lower, with the FTSE 100 down 34.00 points, or 0.5%, to 6,476.20.
Oil shares came under pressure as the price of crude fell. Tullow Oil fell 5.3%, and BP was down 3%.
Brent crude fell to a near four-year low of $82.08 a barrel.
Imperial Tobacco rose 4.1% after it reported a 5% increase in full-year operating profit to £2.06bn.
Legal & General climbed 2% after reporting a 12% rise in net cash generation over the first nine months of the year.
Shares in Associated British Foods stood 4.2% higher after it reported full-year results that showed profits rising thanks to another strong performance from Primark.
However, the company also warned that its food business would be hit by lower prices of sugar and other commodities, and so it saw "limited opportunity" to grow adjusted earnings per share in the new financial year.
On the currency markets, the pound rose 0.07% against the dollar to $1.5983 but fell 0.44% against the euro to €1.2741.