LONDON MARKETS: FTSE 100 Falls For Third Day As Oil Majors Drag

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

Investors are still digested Wednesday's attack in London

U.K. stocks moved slightly lower on Thursday, driven by losses in energy shares on worries over continued oversupply in the oil market.

Investors were also still digesting the attack in London on Wednesday afternoon, which left at least four people dead and dozens injured. Police is treating the incident as a terrorist attack.

The FTSE 100 index was down 0.1% to 7,316.71, on track for a third straight day of losses.

The weakness was driven mainly by losses among the heavily-weighted oil giants, following news on Wednesday that U.S. oil supplies have risen to a fresh record. Oil prices closed lower on Wednesday, but rebounded slightly in Thursday's trade.

Shares of BP PLC (BP.LN) (BP.LN) lost 0.5% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) (RDSB.LN) fell 0.3%.

In other movers, shares of Kingfisher PLC (KGF.LN) dropped 1.9%, building on a 5.1% slide from Wednesday when the home-improvement retailer flagged concerns about the uncertainty for the U.K. economy in the wake of the Brexit vote (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kingfisher-profit-rises-chairman-to-retire-2017-03-22).

Next PLC (NXT.LN) jumped 5.9% after the fashion retailer maintained its final dividend at GBP1.05 and confirmed its guidance for the current year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fashion-retailer-next-posts-drop-in-profit-2017-03-23).

Sterling: The pound traded at $1.2491, up slightly from $1.2484 late Wednesday in New York.

"Yesterday's presumed terrorist attack in London initiated some weakness for sterling crosses, but this proved short lived and we're seeing further gains for the pound as the European session gets underway," said Tony Cross, market analyst for TopTradr, in a note.

An assailant on Wednesday afternoon mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, before breaking through barriers and into parameters of the Houses of Parliament. A police officer was stabbed and later died of his injuries. Two members of the public and the attacker have also been confirmed dead.

Read:U.K. police arrest 7 in London terror-attack probe: report (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/uk-police-make-arrests-linked-to-westminster-attack-report-2017-03-23)

At 9:30 a.m. London time, attention turns to U.K. retail sales data for February.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 23, 2017 05:10 ET (09:10 GMT)

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