Despite the arrival of Black Friday shopping mania, investors are in anything but festive mood as the FTSE 100 falls 42.9 points to 6680.52, dragged lower by fresh declines in oil stocks. The sector is under significant pressure after producers' cartel OPEC failed to cut its output leading to an extension in the collapse in crude prices - BG (BG.) slips 7.5% to 911.3p, BP (BP.) is down 3.2% to 412.7p and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) 3.3% to £21.91.
In the mid cap space Premier Oil (PMO) is off 12.3% to 189.4p, Enquest (ENQ) 9.5% to 52.7p and Ophir Energy (OPHR) 11.5% to 139.8p. On the oil services side Wood (WG.) is down 5.5% to 597.5p and Hunting (HTG) off 7.7% at 578p. We look at the story in more detail here.
Bucking the doom and gloom is housebuilder MJ Gleeson (GLE), which jumps 6.7% to 365p as its latest market missive triggers profit upgrades from broker N+1 Singer. The urban regeneration and strategic land specialist says first half trading is well ahead of last year and expects further land sales in the second half to boost cash flow.
Grocery giants are in the red again as the fallout from the chicken contamination scare continues, with Tesco (TSCO) 2p cheaper at 183.65p, Morrisons (MRW) marked down 1.8p to 176.2p and Sainsbury's (SBRY) shedding 4.4p to 229.5p.
Theme park operator Merlin Entertainments (MERL) edges up 1% to 371.2p on news it will open its first Legoland park in South Korea in 2017. The total estimate cost of the park is £172 million, of which Merlin will invest £57 million. The company expects to achieve a return on invested capital (ROIC) of 20%, implying £34 million of pro-forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA).
New Britain Palm Oil (NBPO) is marked down 4% to 665p as it warns fourth quarter profits will be hit by higher production costs and lower palm oil selling prices. There's also news of a delay to EU clearance of New Britain's recommended takeover by Sime Darby at 715p a share.
A sell-off in commodity currencies hits technical products distributor Diploma (DPLM), a running Play of the Week, which slides 3.7% to 688.5p. While not exposed to currencies per se, Diploma sells most of its healthcare products in Australian and Canadian dollars and buys them in US dollars and euros.
Debt and receivables aggregator Arrow Global (AWR) reports good progress in a third quarter update and completes its acquisition of Capquest, which produces repayment plans for customers in debt difficulty, though the shares are marked down 0.9% to 245p.
Family-controlled car dealer Caffyns (CFYN) clips ahead 10p to 585p on strong interim results and a confident outlook statement. Pre-tax profits accelerated 16% to £1.2 million in the half and there's a 12.5% dividend hike to 6.75p to cheer followers.
Life sciences research specialist Proteome Sciences (PRM:AIM) gains 4.2% to 24.5p on news of further positive test results for SysQuant, a substance that predicts the likelihood of tumour recurrence in pancreatic cancer sufferers and matches patients to individual treatments. Proteome has since signed two contracts with pharmaceutical companies to use the product.
