Sector movers: Telecommunications, Oil lead gains

Telecommunications paced gains in the FTSE 350 on Wednesday, bolstered by an unexpectedly strong showing for Vodafone for its fiscal third quarter.

The mobile telecoms giant reported an unexpected return to organic services revenue growth of 0.4%, driven by a robust performance at its German arm.

Management also sounded a confident note on the outlook.

Further bolstering sentiment, Reuters reported that the firm was planning to list its European mobile phone masts business on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

Stock in BT Group was also higher ahead of its own third update due out on the next day.

Big Oil and related services names were also wanted, helped by further gains in Brent crude oil futures.

At the end of the session, front-dated crude was ahead by 2.25% at $58.75 on ICE in response to expectations that the likes of the UK and US would be able to start reopening their economies as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines continued.

On a related note, investors were waiting on the conclusions from the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee scheduled for the afternoon.

Top performing sectors so far today

Mobile Telecommunications 3,083.71 +5.65%

Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 5,406.38 +1.85%

Fixed Line Telecommunications 1,562.47 +1.69%

Oil & Gas Producers 4,604.38 +1.47%

Life Insurance 6,861.92 +1.11%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 4,935.13 -3.52%

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 15,545.96 -2.96%

Beverages 23,296.26 -1.97%

Aerospace and Defence 3,311.92 -1.45%

Health Care Equipment & Services 6,737.92 -1.23%