Aberdeen-based oil exploration minnow i3 Energy was Scotland’s biggest victim of the rout across world stock markets as its shares plunged almost 30% in the first hour of trading.
Engineering heavyweights Wood, Weir and Aggreko together saw £1 billion wiped off their market values with falls outstripping the wider market hit. Wood (-21%) was worst affected followed by Weir (-16%) and Aggreko (-12%).
Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy (-20%) and Parkmead (-12.5%) were also hit hard as oil prices saw their fastest single-day fall since the first Gulf War. Hurricane Energy, behind the Lancaster field which is one of the North Sea’s most promising new developments, was down 24%.
Finance firms were also badly hit by the market carnage with Standard Life Aberdeen losing more than £600 million from its market capitalisation after tumbling 8%, RBS was down 7% and Virgin Money fell 11.5%.
But more defensive stocks saw relatively limited falls. Housebuilding Springfield Properties was down a relatively modest 5.7% and utility group SSE fell by 5.6%. Celtic FC was down by just under 2%.
As investors look to safe havens such as precious metals, shares in gold explorer Scotgold also held steady despite the sell-off. Packaging group Macfarlane was also barely impacted.
The turmoil was triggered by a row between Saudi Arabia and Russia over the weekend. Russia had refused to agree to OPEC plans to cut oil production in a bud to shore up prices, so the Saudis slashed the price of its oil.
That pushed down the price of Brent crude, the international oil standard, by more than 35% at one point. It partially recovered to 35.64 US dollars per barrel, or 27% down.
