Shares in Tullow Oil (TLW) fell by nearly 6% on Tuesday after the exploration company said it wasn't able to find any commercial oil at a well in French Guiana. Tullow's exploration director, Angus McCoss, said the area still offers "excellent potential" for other exploration attempts. However, "the company’s plea ... fell on deaf ears," said Chris Beauchamp, a market analyst at IG. Tullow Oil was the worst performer on the FTSE 100 index on Tuesday.
Aside from Tullow, the market was trading in a narrow range.
"The FTSE has been becalmed all day, stuck in a trading range of around 30 points. Today it didn’t even get near 5900 before enthusiasm began to fizzle out, a product of ongoing nervousness surrounding fiscal cliff negotiations in the US," said Beauchamp.
The FTSE 100 index closed at 5,869 after falling by 2 points. The FTSE 250 index edged up by 26 points to 12,053.
On the corporate earnings front, the plumbing products distributor Wolseley (WOS) reported first quarter earnings for 2013 while the travel operator TUI Travel (TT.) released preliminary results for the year ended September 30, 2012.
Shares in Wolseley edged up by nearly 1% after the company reported it was growing sales, especially in North America. However, the company admitted it was seeing weaker demand in France and the Nordic countries.
Shares in TUI Travel also got a 3% boost after reporting that it was improving its profitability, even as it saw a small squeeze on revenue. The company also managed to hike its dividend by 4%.