Oil and Gas shares topped the leaderboard again on Tuesday as Washington and London announced bans on the importation of Russian oil.
“That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable in U.S. ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine,” U.S. President Joe Biden said.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures finished up by 3.6% to $123.70 a barrel on the back of his remarks, having earlier hit an intraday high of $129.44.
Earlier, the UK had announced that it would phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by 2022.
US Energy Information Administration data showed that in 2021 the US imported around 672,000 barrels a day of oil and refined products from Russia or 8.0% of the America’s total imports of those goods.
Imports of just oil ran at a pace of 200,000 b/d during the previous year.
Earlier, the European Commission had laid out plans that would reportedly allow it to reduce the bloc’s purchases of Russian natural gas by a third in 2022 and 2023, but no decision had yet been taken.
The decision by the White House came amid growing pressure from members of both parties in Congress due to the ongoing assault against Ukraine.
Top performing sectors so far today
Oil, Gas and Coal 6,970.59 +3.52%
Life Insurance 6,488.51 +2.01%
Aerospace and Defence 4,624.30 +1.57%
Electricity 10,066.96 +1.33%
Banks 2,921.41 +1.14%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Investment Banking and Brokerage Services 11,192.71 -4.79%
Leisure Goods 15,875.42 -4.57%
Automobiles & Parts 2,274.39 -4.31%
Media 8,325.86 -3.46%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,589.79 -2.90%
