London stocks kick off second half on a downswing

Shell, together with two Japanese trading companies, holds just under a 50% stake in Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. Jupiter Fund Management and Abrdn slid 6.1% and 3.1%, respectively, after Citigroup downgraded the fund manager's stocks to "sell" from "neutral".

UK stock indexes fell on Friday and were on course for their fourth weekly decline in five, with heavyweight oil and mining shares taking a hit from lower commodity prices. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was down 0.8% by 0702 GMT, while the domestically-focussed midcap FTSE 250 index declined 0.7%.

Both the indexes entered the second half of 2022 on a downbeat note after a rough first half on worries that aggressive central bank actions to tame red-hot inflation would trigger a global recession. Heavyweight oil companies BP Plc and Shell dipped 1.9% and 0.6%, respectively, while industrial metal and mining stocks dropped 2.2% to weigh the most on FTSE 100 index.

Shares of Shell also came under pressure as the oil major suspended plans to sell its onshore oil assets in Nigeria, and after Russia moved to create a new firm to take charge of the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project in the country's far east. Shell, together with two Japanese trading companies, holds just under a 50% stake in Sakhalin Energy Investment Co.

Jupiter Fund Management and Abrdn slid 6.1% and 3.1%, respectively, after Citigroup downgraded the fund manager's stocks to "sell" from "neutral".

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)