FTSE 100 Closes Holiday Week in Red; BP to Sell Castrol Stake

08:11 AM EST, 12/24/2025 (MT Newswires) -- London's FTSE 100 blue-chip index ended the shortened Wednesday trading day 0.19% in the red amid light trading volumes on Christmas Eve. BP (BP.L) dominated headlines after agreeing to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol subsidiary to US-based alternative investment company Stonepeak in a deal that values the lubricants business at $10.1 billion. The British oil and gas major intends to use the $6 billion in total net proceeds from the sale, including $800 million in future dividend payments, to reduce its net debt. The deal is anticipated to close by 2026-end, with a new joint venture between BP and Stonepeak set to be established. BP's stock shed 0.39% at closing. "Investors had been looking for the Castrol sale as a catalyst to de-lever the balance sheet, and after a few months of much press speculation, the deal is here. We continue to question the rationale (beyond the headline multiple) of selling this highly cash generative, low volatility and low capital intensity asset, as ultimately this is detrimental to the long term dividend sustainability and earnings quality of the business," analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a note. "Accelerated dividends now will help reduce debt, but clearly at the expense of medium term cash flows. We think the better long term option would have been to cut the buyback as it has been funded by the balance sheet anyway, or look to divest some of the upstream assets in development," RBC added. Meanwhile, Supermarket Income REIT (SUPR.L) saw its shares rise 0.38% as it completed the purchase of three supermarkets in the UK, namely a Tesco store in Aylesbury, a Sainsbury's store in Sale and a Waitrose store in Frimley, for a total sum of 97.6 million pounds sterling. The acquisition price reflects an average net initial yield of 5.5%. "The acquisitions come at the end of a transformational year for SUPR, where we delivered on key strategic objectives, including lease renewals, internalisation, our debut bond issuance and changes to our listing," said Supermarket Income REIT Chief Executive Officer Rob Abraham. "We are on track to have recycled approximately GBP400 million of capital this year into an exciting range of acquisitions across the various channels in our earnings accretive pipeline."