Markets: oil stocks drag FTSE 100 to a five-week low

• FTSE 100 down 0.5% to 6,500
• Gold down 0.35% to $1,226.66/oz
• £/$ - 1.5715

FTSE 100

Oil services firm Petrofac was the biggest faller of the day with a 3.4% slide. BG Group lost 2.9%, while Tullow Oil fell 2.8% and Royal Dutch Shell was 2.6% lower.

In European markets, the Paris CAC 40 fell 36 points to 4,227, and the German Xetra Dax rose six points to 9,799.

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In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 1.5% to 17,533, the S&P 500 lost 1.6% to 2,026, while the Nasdaq Composite was 1.7% lower at 4,684.

Overnight in Japan, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% to 17,257, and the broader Topix lost 0.7% to 1,397. And in China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.5% to 2,925 and the CSI 300 was 1.2% lower at 3,183.

Brent spot was trading at $64.44 early today, and in New York, crude oil was at $61.14. Spot gold was trading at $1,224 an ounce, silver was at $17.04 and platinum was at $1,240.

In the forex markets this morning, sterling was trading against the US dollar at 1.5692 and against the euro at 1.2602. The dollar was trading at 0.8031 against the euro and 118.25 against the Japanese yen.

And today, hotels and catering group Whitbread reported a 6% rise in like-for-like sales for the third quarter. Sales at Premier Inn rose by 8.5%, and at Costa Coffee by 5.2%.

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