Market Roundup: Royal Mail delivers but FTSE dragged by energy, Greek debt

Crude Oil Prices and Opec — Oil major shares dipped Friday, dragging down the FTSE, on low per barrel prices. Reuters

Royal Mail was back on top Friday to finish out a week of ups and downs for the company as the government finalised the sale of its remaining 30% stake in the once publicly held company. But energy stocks showed poor performance, dragging down the FTSE along with Greek debt troubles.

Shares in the mail service rose 2.78% to 507.00p despite poor performance Thursday following finalisation of the overnight sale.

The UK's supermarkets failed to make similar gains as they did Wednesday. "The honeymoon is over for supermarket giants Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons following their brief stint near the top of the blue chip leader board earlier this week," says AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.

"The temptation for some swift profit-taking proved too much with the three rivals all seeing falls on a day when red figures dominated the board as investors generally became nervous about the repercussions from an increasingly likely Greek exit from the Eurozone."

The FTSE 100 dropped -0.90% to 6,784.92 after gaining Wednesday and Thursday. The unravelling of negotiations to find a solution to Greece's debt woes earlier this week weighed heavily on the market.

Energy stocks took a tumble. Royal Dutch Shell and its major oil rival both fell 2.1%. Independent oil and gas explorer TrapOil issued a statement after its shares veered wildly. Earlier this week in the North Sea the company revealed it had started work on the Niobe prospect and it is urgently assessing a number of potential funding sources. "These include the potential sale of some of the group's licence interests," said Mould.

FTSE 100 biggest risers