THE London market struggled to make progress yesterday as lower oil prices hit the energy sector and overshadowed a strong session for UK insurers.

The FTSE 100 Index was 4.6 points lower at 5858.5, despite a stronger opening for Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was ahead by 0.3 per cent.

Traders in the US put several days of heavy losses behind them and turned their focus to a speech by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on the outlook for the US economy.

The oil and gas sector weighed on the market as crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange for July delivery dropped 0.2 per cent to $98 a barrel.

The cost was driven down by the prospect of slowing US economic growth and expectations that Opec members will vote today to boost production at the organisation’s member meeting in Vienna, Austria.

Petrofac lost 20p to 1542p, Royal Dutch Shell dropped 17.5p to 2126p, Essar Energy was off 3.3p at 435.1p, Cairn Energy edged 1.4p lower at 428p and BP was down 1.2p at 449.5p.

The London market was given support from Friends Life owner Resolution after the insurance consolidation firm said it planned to return about £500m to shareholders.

The stock shot up nearly four per cent to the top of the risers’ board and was 9.8p higher at 309.7p.

Fellow insurers followed suit, with Admiral up 26p at 1735p, Legal & General ahead 2.3p at 116p and Standard Life advancing 3.5p to 207.3p.

Elsewhere in the financial sector, Lloyds Banking Group recovered some of Monday’s losses as it moved ahead 0.8p to 47.7p.

The heavily-weighted mining sector lifted the blue-chip index with Anglo-Australian firm Rio Tinto adding 58p at 4206p, Xstrata up 18p at 1373.5p and Vedanta Resources ahead 14p at 2072p.