Movers

Poor performances from two heavily-weighted oil stocks and further selling of the battered banking sector brought to a close two days of strong gains for the FTSE 100 on Tuesday.

With Wall Street shut for the Independence Day holiday, the FTSE 100 closed a quiet session 53.4 points lower at 6,417.0. The FTSE 250, Small Cap and TechMark indices all closed higher but gains were limited.

BP Amoco, down 18p at 630p, and Shell, off 15.5p at 555p, were the main factors behind the weakness of the blue chip index. Both were unsettled by Saudi Arabia's pledge to begin pumping a fur ther 500,000 barrels of oil a day. BP also suffered from a downgrade from SG Securities, which cut its target price to 650p from a previous figure of 700p.

Second-tier oil stocks were also out of favour after Dresdner Kleinwort Benson lowered its recommendations on number of oil exploration and production stocks. Worst affected were Lasmo, which fell 8p to 131.5p, and Enterprise Oil, which retreated 21p to 525p.

The banking sector had another tough session following Monday's decision by HSBC to slash nearly 1% off its basic mortgage rate which continued to undermine investor sentiment.

In the wake of that news, which many observers said could prompt a full scale price war, analysts at Deutsche Bank issued sell advice on Alliance & Leicester, down 33p to 557p, Woolwich, 3p lower at 272p, and Lloyds TSB, off 14.5p at 604.5p. Barclays was also hit, giving back 60p to stand at £15.90p.

But Scottish & Newcastle walked away with the FTSE 100's wooden spoon falling 39p to 489p as investors took fright at the full year figures and news that its core pubs business has struggled to make headway.

On the upside, Dixons advanced 15.75p to 280p, as buyers moved in ahead of full year figures due today.

Hilton shrugged off recent underperformance with a gain of 10p to 233p. Dealers said that a buy note from Deutsche Bank was responsible for the move.

Lower down, Eidos shot up 45.75p to 538p on speculation that the French group Infogrames is set to pounce on the creator of the computer game heroine Lara Croft with a 700p a share bid.

The biotech company Cambridge Antibody also shone, notching up a gain of 237.5p to £32.10p after victory in a key patent dispute.

Meanwhile on AIM, Jellyworks appreciated 5p to 39.5p after it disclosed that it was in preliminary take-over discussions with the stockbroker Shore Capital.