Falling oil prices should be good news for British Airways, since this lowers its own fuel costs. But a profit warning from low cost rival easyJet has outweighed any thoughts of cheaper oil and left both airlines foundering.
Easyjet said profits for the year could fall by more than 40% after the recent surge in oil prices, with the recent drop in crude having little effect so far. So easyJet has dropped 37.5p to 332.5p, while BA is down 21.25p at 242p.
More predictably, falling oil also left BP 9.25p lower at 512.5p, and Royal Dutch Shell B shares off 36p at £17.90.
Miners were also weaker, after a further decline in metal prices. Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation closed 66p lower at 949p, while Xstrata and Lonmin both lost around 6%. Heading the mid-cap fallers was iron and titanium specialist Aricom, down 9.75p at 57p.
With Wall Street down 140 points following weaker than expected existing home sales, the FTSE 100 closed 87.6 points lower at 5362.3.
Heading higher was B&Q owner Kingfisher, up 7.6p to 124.3p as investors took more notice of a positive trading update than poor high street sales figures for June.
British Energy closed 42.5p higher at 728.5p after confirming it was in advanced talks about a takeover, believed to be with France's EDF.
