FTSE ends down as weak oils offset miners

By Dominic Lau

LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 share index ended down 0.4 percent on Wednesday as weakness in heavyweight oil stocks offset gains in miners, platinum specialist Johnson Matthey (JMAT.L) and caterer Compass Group (CPG.L).

The FTSE 100 .FTSE closed 18.56 points lower at 4,152.69 in a choppy session, after swinging from a high of 4,198.74 to a low of 4,050.67. More than 1.1 billion shares changed hands, compared to Tuesday's 1.9 billion and last week's average of 1.4 billion.

The benchmark had gained more than 10 percent in the previous two sessions but is still down more than 35 percent for the year on fears of a severe global recession.

Oil shares were the top losers. BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), Tullow Oil (TLW.L) and Cairn Energy (CNE.L) sagged between 0.8 and 5.8 percent.

Miners offered some support, with the FTSE 350 mining index .FTNMX1770 gaining 5.4 percent. Kazakhmys (KAZ.L), Antofagasta (ANTO.L), Fresnillo (FRES.L), BHP Billiton (BLT.L) and Vedanta Resources (VED.L) rose between 5.7 and 9.9 percent.

Rio Tinto (RIO.L) underperformed the sector, up 1.1 percent after BHP announced its decision on Tuesday to walk away from its hostile takeover bid for Rio.

"I don't see a great deal of upside in the short term. There are still pitfalls out there which could trip the market up and we could see a further move down on the FTSE 100 towards the 3,800 level," said Tim Whitehead, head of portfolio services at Redmayne-Bentley.

"For the short term, I don't see a great deal of momentum in the market but the best we can hope for is some stability and that would be a welcome relief."