Sector movers: Electricity stocks pace gains

Defensives were again to be found at the top of the leaderboard as longer term market interest rates fell back.

Electricty stocks were especially well bid after the collapse of smaller energy supplier GB Energy over the weekend, political intervention in the energy sector is now much less likely, according to Credit Suisse, which said Centrica's British Gas or SSE could take over the supply of affected customers.

GB, a recent new entrant in the residential energy market that was reported to have around 160,000 customers, said on Saturday that is no longer trading due to "swift and significant increases in energy prices" that made its position "untenable".

In parallel, as of 1601 the yield on the benchmark 10-year Gilt was off by four basis points at 1.38%.

On a related note, in a research note outlining their take on European equities for 2017 Morgan Stanley said 'cyclicals'
looked "most vulnerable to a pullback", hence their decision to undwerweight to Consumer Discretionary and Industrial stocks.

Defensives, the investment bank´s strategists said, look 'oversold' in the short-term but on a longer-term view are 6% overvalued relative to current bond yields.

Their recommendation was to 'overweight' Healthcare but to 'underweight' Consumer Staples and Utilities.

Precious metals miners were also helping to prop up the Mining sector as the US dollar spot index slipped 0.07% to 101.4, helping gold futures on COMEX bounce back by 0.97% to $1,192.30 per ounce, boosting share prices in Randgold Resources, Hochschild Mining, and Fresnillo.

Industrial Metals & Mining was on the backfoot as stock in Evraz fell despite overnight gains in the price of Chinese steel rebar futures from $455.4 per tonne to $474.2 per tonne.

Top performing sectors so far today
Electricity 8,717.41 +2.03%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,384.35 +1.79%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,857.33 +1.29%
Tobacco 51,312.81 +0.62%
Mining 15,034.87 +0.54%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,410.97 -4.00%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 972.30 -3.05%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4,747.76 -2.48%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,999.13 -2.10%
Mobile Telecommunications 4,408.94 -1.90%