Good broker sentiment also helped Tullow Oil, which climbed by...

Good broker sentiment also helped Tullow Oil, which climbed by 52p to 978p – Deutsche Bank chose the company as one of its top picks in the oil & gas exploration and production sector and increased its target price for the stock to 1490p from 1070p.

"In less than one year Tullow has moved the Jubilee field in Ghana from a high-risk/high reward frontier prospect, to the most material element of our core NAV. This aggressive programme of appraisal has lifted Jubilee's P50 resource to 1 billion barrels, 3 further appraisal wells due this year still having the potential to deliver 'significant increases in field size'. In parallel, activity is stepping up in Uganda – drilling in the Butiaba region delivering at least one well a month from now to beyond the year's end, and a result expected from Kingfisher deep in 40 to 60 days," said Deutsche.