Sector movers: Miners and financial services fuel progress

Fuelling market progress on Monday were gains for industrials, miners and financial services, while personal goods and general insurers were causing a drag.

Miners were given a boost by some bullish comments from analysts.

JPMorgan took stock after UK mining equities outperformed market since September, giving an 'overweight' rating to Anglo American and Rio Tinto, 'neutral' for Glencore and 'underweight' for BHP.

"Since Sept’18 we have argued European Mining & Metals equity valuations were pricing in brink of recession multiples. T The catalyst was first US-China trade tariffs announced in Mar’18 that triggered escalating global recession fears. Most investors we engaged with in H2’18 felt it was too late in the cycle to add length to Mining & Steel equities, but late-cycles are typically marked by outperformance of commodities and premium ratings for Miners.

"With almost all industrial commodity prices lower over the period Mar-Dec’18, we have argued that risk / reward was attractive for equities, on the basis that if status quo persisted until recession this will be the only economic cycle since 1961 that industrial commodity prices universally fell late-cycle."

Glencore was the top riser in the sector, given some extra oomph from its inclusion in the Barclays top picks.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch noted that copper had risen 8.6% so far in 2019 but there was "scope for further upside" for the red metal in coming months, as China demand has been weak so far and any resolution to trade talks with the US could provide a further boost.

Life insurer Prudential drove gains in the sector ahead of its full-year results on Wednesday. Peer Aviva was up after its numbers came out last week.

The financial services sector was lifted by the confirmation by Charter Court and OneSavings bank that they are in "advanced" talks about a possible merger. Provident Financial was also higher as it looked to rebuff the approach by smaller rival Non-Standard Finance.

Personal goods were looking a bit unfashionable, with Superdry and Ted Baker the main culprits.

Superdry urged its shareholders to vote against the appointments of co-founder Julian Dunkerton and associate Peter Williams as directors at a general meeting due to be held next month. The Cheltenham-based chain blamed Dunkerton for the "design direction, range selection and range build of the Autumn/Winter 2018 range", which has seen a drop in store and online sales, which the company had previously blamed on unseasonable weather.

Ted Baker was down along with a number of retailers on Monday, including Halfords and Card Factory, amid more gloomy news from the sector on high street footfall.

Top performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining 5,671.19 +2.09%

Automobiles & Parts 6,544.57 +1.55%

Industrial Engineering 11,834.33 +1.20%

Life Insurance 7,548.89 +1.14%

Financial Services 9,900.65 +1.10%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,164.15 -2.89%

Personal Goods 35,399.60 -1.23%

Leisure Goods 7,432.64 -1.16%

Insurance (non-life) 3,155.67 -0.92%

Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,490.46 -0.87%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,123.54 0.27%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,061.90 0.07%

FTSE 100 - Risers

NMC Health (NMC) 2,686.00p 3.79%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 5,680.00p 2.81%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,162.00p 2.37%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 243.30p 2.10%
Evraz (EVR) 591.40p 2.00%
3i Group (III) 959.40p 1.83%
Schroders (SDR) 2,585.00p 1.73%
Aviva (AV.) 421.50p 1.59%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 494.11p 1.54%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 7,020.00p 1.52%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Persimmon (PSN) 2,183.31p -2.88%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 761.00p -2.06%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,098.00p -1.96%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,587.00p -1.67%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,098.50p -1.50%
Informa (INF) 713.40p -1.41%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 470.70p -1.34%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 848.80p -1.19%
BT Group (BT.A) 213.48p -1.05%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,860.00p -1.00%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Charter Court Financial Services Group (CCFS) 341.80p 11.55%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 408.00p 10.27%
Genus (GNS) 2,342.79p 3.94%
Senior (SNR) 226.80p 3.00%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 328.00p 2.95%
G4S (GFS) 206.70p 2.84%
RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 4,394.40p 2.62%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 450.40p 2.57%
Diploma (DPLM) 1,429.50p 2.40%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,167.58p 2.29%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Clarkson (CKN) 2,365.00p -8.69%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 179.80p -8.36%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 257.50p -4.63%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 19.05p -3.64%
Bakkavor Group (BAKK) 130.60p -3.12%
Indivior (INDV) 112.10p -2.86%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 93.30p -2.81%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 379.00p -2.72%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 148.00p -2.63%
Greggs (GRG) 1,718.00p -2.33%