Monday Closing Market: Oil stocks help resilient FTSE wipe out early losses

The FTSE 100 ended a volatile last day of the first quarter of 2008 by clawing back earlier losses to close just ahead, up 9.20 points or 0.16% at 5,702.10.

Just over an hour into trading it had been as low as 5,585.60 before recovering, with miners, oil and financial stocks prominent among the highest risers.

Despite the recovery, the blue chip index still lost 3.5% of its value in March, and 10% overall for the first quarter of 2008.

Volume was light, with 2.47 billion shares changing hands in 672,124 deals.

The biggest gainer was miner Antofagasta which added 3.77% or 25.5p to 701p on rising metals prices, while rival Kazakhmys gained 40p or 2.57% to £15.97.

Oil companies BG Group, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil all saw major gains as the oil price soared.

BG added 26p or 2.28% to £11.67 while Royal Dutch Shell b shares gained  37p or 2.23% to £16.96 and Tullow Oil rose 12.5p to 660.5p.

BP added 9p or 1.79% to close at 512p.

Property firm Hammerson added 30p or 2.8% to £11.14 while rival Liberty International gained 20.5p to 975.5p.

Among the financials, HBOS was the biggest blue chip gainer, up 3.7% or 20p after it continued to rally, ending the day at 560p.