Sector movers: Miners knocked, while tobacco and travel fly higher

Miners and industrial metals stocks were the main drag on the London Stock Market on Tuesday, while dollar-dominated group's benefitted from the weak pound.

Likewise the stronger dollar and trade war fears were hitting miners. The pound, which was also being hit by fears about Brexit, was currency down 0.6% at $1.3162 and trading to 1.317 for the first time in seven months.

Trade tensions were being ramped up as US President Donald Trump called for tariffs on a new $200bn-worth of Chinese imports as well as a back-up list of a further $200bn-worth of goods that could be targeted if Beijing responded with countermeasures of its own.

The moves overnight followed Beijing's decision to retaliate for the duties on $50bn worth of Chinese goods that Washington had announced last week.

"Tit-for-tariff," said Mike van Dulken, head of research at Accendo Markets. "The question now, is where this all ends. USD strength from safe-haven seeking is pushing GBP lower, however, the FTSE is failing to benefit as much as it usually would; the threat to international trade is understandably greater than the accounting benefit."

Volatile Russian steelmaker Evraz was a big faller, with mining giants Rio Tinto, Anglo American and BHP Billiton prominent among the big losers on the day.

Cigarette makers British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands were on the rise as the fall in the pound will boost their heavy earnings exposure to the dollar.

Travel stocks were also flying higher, with easyJet and Carnival high up on the FTSE leaderboard. This came amid renewed interest in M&A activity in the sector, with Norwegian Air's CEO admitting the company has had takeover approaches from a number of potential bidders and is open to a deal on the right terms. Norwegian's Bjorn Kjos said the carrier has rejected two offers by IAG, British Airways’ owner, and Deutsche Lufthansa is considering a proposal. "Several others" are also interested, he told Bloomberg.

This comes five days after US cruise giant Royal Caribbean unveiled a $1bn investment to buy a majority stake in privately held Silversea Cruises to add ultra-luxury and expedition cruises to its fleet.

Top performing sectors so far today

Tobacco 41,038.82 +1.18%
Health Care Equipment & Services 7,911.72 +0.53%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 13,201.06 +0.43%
Travel & Leisure 10,428.53 +0.22%
Leisure Goods 7,370.28 +0.17%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining 4,803.50 -2.92%
Mining 18,772.88 -2.25%
Forestry & Paper 22,616.31 -1.71%
General Industrials 6,779.59 -1.53%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 7,241.97 -1.22%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,595.81 -0.47%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,899.52 -0.48%
techMARK (TASX) 3,532.65 -0.53%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Ferguson (FERG) 6,036.00p 2.48%
Just Eat (JE.) 803.00p 2.03%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,679.00p 1.21%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,626.00p 1.18%
Carnival (CCL) 4,837.00p 0.81%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,582.00p 0.79%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,777.00p 0.68%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,876.00p 0.67%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,612.50p 0.62%
WPP (WPP) 1,213.00p 0.62%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,231.77p -5.91%
Evraz (EVR) 519.80p -3.42%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,125.00p -3.12%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 532.80p -3.06%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,687.60p -2.62%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,638.00p -2.52%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,637.00p -2.50%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,638.00p -2.33%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,116.00p -2.26%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,339.00p -2.23%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Capita (CPI) 162.10p 6.47%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 235.00p 3.07%
BTG (BTG) 533.00p 2.50%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,834.00p 2.09%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 534.20p 1.91%
Hunting (HTG) 776.50p 1.90%
Greencore Group (GNC) 183.66p 1.81%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 219.10p 1.62%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 222.40p 1.37%
IP Group (IPO) 130.40p 1.24%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 111.90p -14.25%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 304.80p -5.66%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 871.80p -4.64%
Alfa Financial Software Holdings (ALFA) 179.00p -4.38%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 505.00p -3.63%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 668.20p -3.52%
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 428.00p -2.73%
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 331.06p -2.63%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 525.84p -2.62%
Renewi (RWI) 82.30p -2.37%