FTSE 100 watch: Footsie under pressure as oil weakness continues

The UK benchmark index has been little changed in today’s session, pressured by the ongoing oil price weakness. A report by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) meanwhile is weighing on asset managers, including Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL) which has slipped to the bottom of the FTSE 100 leaderboard.

As of 12:21, the FTSE 100 was at 7,434.61, flat in percentage terms, having traded in negative territory earlier in the session, pressured by weaker crude prices. Sentiment has also been subdued after the FCA proposed changes to the asset management industry, with the news sending Hargreaves Lansdown’s share price 0.47 percent lower to 1,304.00p.
“Rather than having the management fee and then also trading commission as well and then other sorts of fees on top of that, I think the regulator would rather that wealth managers charged just one fixed percentage that encompassed everything, so consumers would know exactly what they were paying,” Rachel Winter, senior investment manager at Killik & Co, told Reuters.

The Telegraph meanwhile quoted David Morrey, partner and head of investment management at Grant Thornton, as saying that the regulator had “shown itself to be largely impervious to the lobbying efforts of the industry”.
At the other end of the spectrum has been Bunzl (LON:BNZL), whose shares have been in demand after the company updated investors on its recent performance, revealing that its half-year revenue had climbed by seven percent. Bunzl’s share price is currently 3.42 percent better off at 2,388.00p.

Shares in United Utilities (LON:UU) meanwhile have gained ground after the company revealed that it had appointed Steve Fraser, a director of United Utilities Water, to the board as Chief Operating Officer. United Utilities’ shares are currently changing hands 0.94 percent higher at 908.50p.
**The FTSE 100 was at 7,434.54 points, flat in percentage terms, as of 12:47 BST, on Wednesday, 28 June 2017.**