Odd things, markets. The price of oil has recovered by 13 per cent since the start of the year. The share price of Weir Group has fallen by 3.5 per cent, despite a sharp rise yesterday — a fall driven by the price of oil.
In February, the maker of pumps and other equipment, half of it for the oil and gas industry, warned that the low level of investment there meant that profits would be down this year, a statement of the blindingly obvious. The shares fell.
Yesterday Weir put some detail on that decline, with first-quarter figures. The shares jumped 98p to £18.36.
This tells us that there is a lagging effect between the movement of the oil price and Weir shares. This