The continuing rise in the price of crude oil sent European equities markets lower Monday.

In London, the FTSE 100 fell 0.1 percent to 5,072.0, while the FTSE 250 declined by 0.3 percent to 7,335.7. A low volume of 2.2 billion shares were traded.

Oil companies benefited, as BG Group gained 1.5 percent to 455 ¾p and Shell was up by 0.6 percent to 519 ¾p.

Companies with high oil expenditures, conversely, took losses. ICI declined by 2.9 percent to 266 ½p, while British Airways fell 1.7 percent to 272.25p.

France’s market had the largest retreat of the day in major European equities markets, falling 0.7 percent on the day to 4,193.4.

Notably, Michelin was down 1 percent to €51 as a consequence of safety questions raised on Sunday after all the cars using Michelin tyres pulled out of the US Grand Prix auto race when the company said that it could not guarantee the safety of their tyres for the duration of the race, resulting in only six cars actually running the race.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.05 percent to 1,139.13, with gains in the oil sector offset by profit-taking in some other sectors.

Companies on the Eurofirst benefiting from the rise in oil prices included BP, with a rise of 0.7 percent to 490.5p and Royal Dutch, which advanced by 0.9 percent to €52.