Sector movers: Building materials in the red, but 'offers opportunities'

Construction & materials was one of the main weights on the main London stock indices on Thursday.

Building materials companies were trading lower, led by CRH, Kier and Marshalls.

Kicking off third-quarter updates from the sector, Heidelberg Cement released a profit warning, sending nervous investors packing. The Germany cement titan cut full year organic profit growth guidance from a “mid to high single digit” percentage increase to a “low to mid single percentage decrease” due to adverse weather in the US and higher than anticipated energy costs.

Analysts at JPMorgan Cazenove expect the quarter to be another lacklustre one for the sector, "with consensus expectations likely to be revised down yet again". However, they said valuations were already reflecting this, in their view, as the sector is down 23% so far in 2018 and has underperformed the market by 17%. "We would position for stocks where we believe that the required growth rate for H2 is achievable, ie, CRH and [Saint Gobain]."

In an adjoining sub-sector of the huge support services space, equipment rental, FTSE 100-listed Ashtead’s main US competitor, market leader United Rentals, also announced results after the US market close, with revenue 5% and EBITDA 4% ahead of consensus forecasts and upgrading full year forecasts for both.

"We see the beat and raise supporting our Overweight rating on Ashtead with positive read-across from revenue growth rates remaining strong and underpinning our Q2’18 forecasts, the still positive market outlook and solid rate development even versus tougher comps," said Cazenove.

Elsewhere, the drinks sector was as green as kiwi juice, with Diageo, Britvic, Barr and Coca-Hola HBC all higher. This was despite data from the Office for National Statistics showing that food and drink prices eased to 1.5% in September from 2.5% the month earlier.

Top performing sectors so far today

Beverages 20,935.54 +1.79%
Automobiles & Parts 8,152.71 +1.72%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,830.99 +1.61%
Media 7,925.96 +1.43%
Industrial Transportation 2,660.46 +1.09%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Leisure Goods 7,719.47 -7.06%
Construction & Materials 5,290.65 -2.15%
General Industrials 5,790.97 -1.37%
Mining 16,927.37 -1.23%
Industrial Engineering 11,640.09 -1.03%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,051.59 -0.04%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,031.82 0.09%
techMARK (TASX) 3,357.16 0.57%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Pearson (PSON) 868.40p 3.95%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 951.00p 2.31%
Informa (INF) 734.00p 2.17%
British Land Company (BLND) 584.20p 2.13%
Diageo (DGE) 2,621.00p 2.02%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,524.40p 2.01%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 250.35p 1.95%
WPP (WPP) 1,048.50p 1.94%
Croda International (CRDA) 4,710.00p 1.60%
BT Group (BT.A) 245.35p 1.55%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

CRH (CRH) 2,246.00p -3.06%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,304.00p -2.14%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,560.00p -2.07%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 778.80p -2.06%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,646.60p -1.80%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 552.10p -1.46%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,036.00p -1.46%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 266.70p -1.44%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,423.00p -1.44%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,977.50p -1.32%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 283.20p 8.63%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 610.00p 4.63%
National Express Group (NEX) 413.80p 4.44%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 660.00p 3.48%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 173.00p 3.47%
Diploma (DPLM) 1,311.00p 3.39%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 149.60p 3.31%
Indivior (INDV) 198.60p 3.25%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,750.00p 3.18%
On The Beach Group (OTB) 439.50p 3.05%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Mediclinic International (MDC) 354.50p -10.03%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,115.00p -6.46%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 111.80p -5.65%
Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 1,608.60p -5.50%
Capita (CPI) 126.10p -4.29%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 102.20p -3.31%
Intu Properties (INTU) 179.00p -3.24%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 478.40p -3.04%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 217.40p -2.95%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,535.90p -2.88%