Sector movers: Financials pace gains ahead of central bank policy decisions

Cyclicals paced gains on Wednesday, alongside a bounce in food retailers with financials figuring prominently ahead of interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday evening, as well as the Bank of England and European Central Bank the next day.

However, contrary to the expectations of some, following the Fed's policy announcement US government bond yields in fact moved lower, dragging lenders' shares on the other side of the Atlantic down with them.

Financial services were also higher, helped by target price upgrades out of JP Morgan on Ashmore, Intermediate Capital Group, Jupiter Fund Management, Man Group and NEX Group.

"The European AM sector has re-rated during 2017 and is trading at a circa 10% premium to the long-run average 1yr forward PE. We believe a further re-rating is unlikely as structural/regulatory developments are unsupportive, especially for traditional AM, and we prefer alternative AMs," said analysts at JP Morgan.

Aerospace and Defence was also on the up, with BAE Systems stock boosted by Goldman Sachs's decision to reiterate its Conviction List buy for the defence group.

At the bottom of the pile were oilfield services stocks as Wood Group cratered despite the outfit having reported that the integration of newly acquired Amec Foster Wheeler was progressing ahead of schedule.

Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 3,519.22 +1.08%
Food & Drug Retailers 3,205.62 +1.05%
Banks 4,611.65 +1.04%
Financial Services 10,791.15 +1.04%
Aerospace and Defence 4,824.60 +0.96%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 12,144.53 -5.11%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,146.64 -1.61%
Automobiles & Parts 6,976.79 -1.09%
Electricity 7,701.18 -0.92%
Oil & Gas Producers 8,741.34 -0.85%