London yoyos on topsy-turvy day

London was swinging today after initial gains turned to losses before it all ended back on square one.

The FTSE ended the day at 6214.00 down 0.02 per cent.

In New York the Dow Jones has started to make up initial losses but by 16:13 (BST) it was down 32 points to 12936.89.

Nasdaq has been following a similar pattern but has climbed 0.1 per cent to 2466.54.

In London the early story of the day was the discovery of a "significant" oil strike by Tullow Oil – which saw its share price up 23 per cent to 942p.

The biggest losers of the day were easyJet – ahead of its results out tomorrow – and Russia-focused oil firm Imperial Energy.

Tim Hughes, head of sales trading at spread betting firm IG Index, said: "It has been a choppy day that has seen the FTSE 100 flipping around the 6200 mark.

"It has been something of a quiet start after the Bank Holiday with not much in the way of economic news driving the market. A trading update from Lloyds TSB said that performance so far in 2008 was as expected – but it was making a bigger than forecast writedown of £387 million.

"Biggest gainer on the day so far has been Tullow Oil with news of a ‘significant’ find and the oil price reaching out to fresh record highs, pushing the stock up a good 20 per cent."

He added: "Today has once again seen the UK market resilient in the face of a bit of pressure emerging for US stocks.

"This has been a frequent pattern of late and makes trying to pinpoint the end of the FTSE bounce back something of a mug’s game at the moment. For now, dips continue to be viewed as buying opportunities and many traders are eyeing the 6250 mark as the next key objective for the index."

Daniel Barnes