By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

BP, Shell fall as oil prices slide again

U.K. stocks swung between gains and losses before finally finishing in positive territory Wednesday, on the heels of Tuesday's rout in equities.

The FTSE 100 ended up 0.4% at 6,083.31, but had dipped in and out of positive territory after notching a 0.9% gain earlier in the session.

Ashtead Group PLC (AHT.LN), with shares up 7.7%, topped advancers after the equipment-rental company said its full-year results should be in line with its expectations, and posted a sharp rise in first-quarter earnings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ashtead-earnings-rise-confident-about-full-year-2015-09-02).

But decliners included major oil companies Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN)(RDSB.LN) and BP PLC (BP.LN)(BP.LN) as oil prices (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/brent-back-below-50-as-oil-prices-keep-sliding-2015-09-02) fell more than 4% intraday. Oil prices came under renewed pressure late Tuesday after the American Petroleum Institute reported an unexpected rise in weekly U.S. crude supplies (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-prices-drop-after-api-data-show-weekly-jump-in-crude-supplies-2015-09-01).

Shares of BP fell 1.2% and Shell shares lost 0.3%.

The FTSE 100 on Tuesday dropped 3% (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-falls-as-weak-china-data-weighs-on-miners-2015-09-01), as dreary Chinese manufacturing data underscored worries about slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

It is unlikely that the recent rout in global equities is coming to an end, with "further evidence of a slowing-China's impact on the global economy [coming] overnight in the form of weaker Australian GDP data," said Angus Campbell, senior analyst at FxPro, in a note.

The China concerns and uncertainty over the timing of any interest-rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve also drove U.S. equities on Tuesday to their third-worst loss of the year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-growth-fears-slam-us-stock-futures-sharply-lower-2015-09-01).

U.S. stocks were holding higher on Wednesday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/dow-futures-jump-almost-100-points-as-us-stocks-look-set-for-rebound-2015-09-02) after U.S. markets tumbled Tuesday.

U.K. stocks and the pound held steady after ADP's private-sector jobs report showed that the U.S. added 190,000 jobs in August (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/private-sector-adds-190000-jobs-in-august-adp-2015-09-02-8911922). The data precedes the closely watched jobs report due Friday.

Movers: Among FTSE 100 components, miner and commodities trader Glencore PLC (GLEN.LN) fell 8%. Bernstein analyst Paul Gait downwardly revised estimates on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and raised estimates on operating costs.

But chip-designer ARM Holdings PLC (ARMH) (ARMH) was up 0.9% after J.P. Morgan raised its rating to neutral from underweight.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC (HIK.LN) climbed 4.4% to GBP23.22 ($35.56). Barclays has raised its price target on Hikma to GBP27.60 in the wake of Hikma's planned purchase of generic drug maker Roxane Laboratories.

Shares of Merlin Entertainments PLC (MERL.LN) rose 1.3% after UBS raised its rating on the amusement park operator to buy from neutral.

On the FTSE 250, Halfords Group PLC (HFD.LN) slid 8.6% after the retailer said sales of bicycles and accessories at stores open for at least a year dropped 11% in the eight weeks to Aug. 28.

Sterling: The pound fell to as low as $1.5264 after Markit/CIPS said its U.K. construction PMI came in a 57.3 for August. That was up from 57.1 in July, but just shy of the 57.5 reading expected in the FactSet poll of analysts.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2015 12:30 ET (16:30 GMT)