Oil price rise a positive for energy sector stock

As the oil price rises the sector has more scope to fund capital expenditure, giving a valuable profits boost to suppliers and the large oil stocks. Within their US portfolios Britannia, Newton and Edinburgh Fund Managers are all slightly overweight energy stocks against the S&P 500 benchmark exposure of 5.8%. Douglas Wright, US fund manager at Britannia, says so-called upstream spending, by exploration and drilling companies, will increase following a fall in the oil price as low as $10-$11 a barrel earlier this year. It is now up as far as $27 a barrel. The knock-on effect of this at t...