International Consolidated Airlines Group (LSE:IAG) fell 1.83% on Friday as a jump in oil prices raised fresh worries about fuel costs. There was no company-specific announcement identified for the session. Brent Crude rose about 3.4% to $117.61 a barrel on concerns about Supply from the Middle East and from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a clear headwind for airlines, which burn large amounts of fuel.

IAG is the Parent Company of several airlines, which carry passengers and cargo across the Atlantic and within Europe. Fuel is one of the biggest items in any airline's cost base, so the shares tend to be sensitive to changes in the price of crude. When oil rises sharply, investors worry that margins will be squeezed unless carriers can pass higher costs on to travellers or protect themselves through hedging.

The oil move was part of a wider energy story. In the United States, energy was the main gaining sector, as Exxon Mobil rose 2.2% and Chevron rose 2.8% after beating profit forecasts on margins helped by supply disruptions tied to the conflicts involving Iran and Russia. In Canada, WTI crude for December rose US$2.12 to US$104.12 after a tanker attack in the Strait of Hormuz. Airlines sit on the other side of that trade, and IAG's decline fits the pattern in which higher crude lifts producers and weighs on fuel users.

London's market was split on the day. The FTSE 100 closed up 7.71 points, or 0.07%, at 10,729.78, after drifting in and out of positive territory and ending well off its intraday highs. It was the last session of October, and the index rose just over 1% in the month, its first monthly gain in three months, and about 0.37% on the week. Large-cap defensives held the Blue-Chip index up while a sell-off in US technology stocks pushed it down. The FTSE 250 fell 0.9% to 24,453.36 and the AIM All-Share fell 1.4%.

The technology sell-off was a second driver of pressure on risk assets. Weak results from Intel and Amazon, released after Thursday's close, revived doubts that heavy spending on artificial intelligence will pay off. Intel fell roughly 30% in New York, Alphabet dropped 12% on Thursday, and the Nasdaq Composite was down about 2.7% at the London close. The S&P 500 finished down 1.82% at 7,580.07, its worst day since June. IAG's fall is attributed to fuel costs rather than to the tech sell-off.

The winners were defensive. AstraZeneca (LSE:AZN) jumped 7% on its third-quarter results and a savings plan of about $1.5bn, its best day in a year, while BT (LSE:BT.A) rose 6.7% on a press report that Virgin Media O2 is nearing a deal to use Openreach. Consumer staples such as Diageo (LSE:DGE), Unilever (LSE:ULVR), Reckitt (LSE:RKT), Sainsbury (LSE:SBRY) and Tesco (LSE:TSCO) gained broadly. NatWest (LSE:NWG) fell about 8.8% after disappointing net interest Margin guidance, dragging on Lloyds (LSE:LLOY) and Barclays (LSE:BARC), while Computacenter (LSE:CCC), Polar Capital Technology (LSE:PCT) and Scottish Mortgage (LSE:SMT) fell with the Nasdaq.

Miners were weak as well, with gold down about 2.8% to roughly $3,898 an ounce and copper lower. Sterling briefly topped 1.20 euros for the first time since April 2025, and UK house price data showed the slowest October growth since 2024. Neither of these is linked to IAG, so they are context rather than causes.

For IAG (LSE:IAG), the story of the session is therefore short. Crude Oil climbed, airlines are exposed to the price of fuel, and the stock moved lower without any news of its own. The decline of 1.83% was smaller than the falls seen in banks, miners and technology names, but it ran against a FTSE 100 that finished slightly higher.