Sector movers: construction given a lift, supermarkets subside
On the up were construction and housebuilding sectors as well as oil producers, while food retailers were on the slide.
Construction and housebuilding sectors both saw almost universal gains on Tuesday, boosted by data showing mortgage lending rose in May. Gross mortgage lending increased 8.8% to £22.2bn from a year earlier, figures from trade group UK Finance. Approvals at the big high street banks rose 3% from a month earlier.
Also boosting the construction sector was the parliamentary vote in favour of the third runway at Heathrow.
Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley all grew, while construction and building materials groups including CRH, Marshalls and Polypipe were also higher.
Oil and gas producers were also bubbling higher as crude oil prices bounced back, with Brent climbing back above $76 a barrel. Heavyweights BP and Shell both rose more than 1% as they got an extra boost as a US federal judge also dismissed lawsuits by San Francisco and Oakland alleging oil companies, including the London-listed pair, should pay to protect residents from the impacts of climate change.
The mobile telecoms sector was brought back down to earth as shares in Inmarsat fell after France's Eutelsat said it was not planning on making an offer for the company. Shares in the satellite operator had rocketed in the previous session after the French company said it was evaluating a possible offer.
Food and drug retailers were down on the back of industry data from Kantar Worldpanel. All the Big Four supermarkets lost further ground to the discounters, but only Sainsbury's saw negative sales, lagging well behind its rivals with a 0.2% decline over the past 12 weeks. Morrisons, where sales grew 1.9%, was the only one to see its shares not in the red, while Tesco's sales were up 1.4% but its shares fell and Ocado's sales grew 10.1% but its shares were down 0.4%.
Top performing sectors so far today
Construction & Materials +1.63%
Oil & Gas Producers +1.27%
Household Goods & Home Construction +1.25%
General Industrials +1.17%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment +1.15%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Mobile Telecommunications -1.30%
Food & Drug Retailers -0.95%
Software & Computer Services -0.92%
Fixed Line Telecommunications -0.38%
Real Estate Investment & Services -0.36%
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,546.28 0.49%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,809.58 0.17%
techMARK (TASX) 3,479.64 0.13%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Carnival (CCL) 4,389.00p 4.13%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 525.40p 2.82%
Next (NXT) 6,088.00p 2.11%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,490.00p 2.05%
CRH (CRH) 2,699.00p 1.70%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 216.00p 1.60%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 1,042.00p 1.56%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,171.00p 1.53%
Sky (SKY) 1,436.50p 1.52%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,158.00p 1.51%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 678.20p -2.81%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,265.00p -2.17%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 307.30p -1.79%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,594.53p -1.36%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,701.50p -1.31%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 182.00p -1.18%
Tesco (TSCO) 258.40p -1.03%
WPP (WPP) 1,193.50p -0.91%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,925.00p -0.88%
ITV (ITV) 175.45p -0.88%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Cairn Energy (CNE) 253.83p 6.56%
Renishaw (RSW) 5,420.00p 4.63%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 194.10p 3.60%
Ibstock (IBST) 294.80p 2.79%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,455.00p 2.75%
RPC Group (RPC) 718.60p 2.42%
Sanne Group (SNN) 696.00p 2.35%
Premier Oil (PMO) 117.18p 2.25%
Spectris (SXS) 2,706.00p 2.11%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 32.94p 2.04%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Inmarsat (ISAT) 573.60p -9.27%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 992.00p -3.12%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,346.00p -2.89%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 194.30p -2.80%
Provident Financial (PFG) 604.40p -2.55%
Rank Group (RNK) 182.80p -2.35%
Superdry (SDRY) 1,117.00p -2.10%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 108.90p -2.07%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 261.80p -1.87%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 101.70p -1.74%