London’s FTSE 100 flat as sinking crude weighs on oil majors

London's blue-chip FTSE 100 traded virtually flat on Wednesday, hovering near multi-week highs as divergent sector performance balanced out market movements. The primary downward pressure stemmed from a sharp pullback in global oil benchmarks, with Brent crude futures declining over 2% toward $86 per barrel following reports that Iran and Oman have resumed bilateral talks to manage and potentially reopen the Strait of Hormuz. This easing of geopolitical supply concerns prompted profit-taking across energy majors, with Shell and BP each falling more than 1.5%. Conversely, broader market losses were cushioned by strength in homebuilders and industrial mining stocks. The UK government's newly announced £10 billion social housing program provided a strong tailwind for domestic construction and real estate equities. Simultaneously, industrial metals rallied, highlighted by copper prices surging to a six-month high amid falling London Metal Exchange inventories, which bolstered mega-cap miners including Rio Tinto and Anglo American despite gold prices softening slightly ahead of key U.S. inflation data.