Sector movers: Big Oil, Aerospace and Defence bounce back
Some of the more beaten down areas of the London stockmarket paced gains at the start of the week, amid bottom-picking by some investors even in the face of the uncertainty posed by the 3 November elections the next day.
Oil producers and equipment names were top of the leaderboard, boosted by a sharp intra-day reversal in front month Brent crude oil futures.
January Brent was 0.98% higher to $38.31 by session close, having erased a 6% plunge earlier in the session after Bloomberg reported that Russia was studying to delay tapering its oil output curbs by three months.
In a further boost for sentiment in the oil patch, factory sector Purchasing Managers' Indices out of China, India and the US referencing the month of October all printed ahead of analysts' estimates.
Grocers were right behind, with the advance spearheaded by Ocado following the government's announcement at the weekend that some Covid-19 lockdown restrictions would be reimposed.
Against that backdrop, Ocado said that the pace of online sales in the UK was mirroring its third quarter performance, that is to say, year-on-year growth of over 40%.
In aerospace and defence meanwhile, shares of BAE Systems and Rolls Royce both traded firmly on the front foot.
Earlier, analysts at JP Morgan had pointed out how the European Defence sector was already trading at a historical discount to the broader market, having underperformer the Stoxx Europe 600 by a very wide margin over the preceding three months.
According to the investment bank, investors' concerns around the potential impact that Covid-19 might have on countries' defence outlays and of a Joe Biden presidential victory in the US were already more than priced-in and "probably overdone".
Top performing sectors so far today
Oil & Gas Producers 3,558.22 +4.62%
Food & Drug Retailers 4,073.14 +3.74%
Aerospace and Defence 2,833.43 +3.42%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 4,093.62 +3.13%
Mobile Telecommunications 2,431.61 +2.81%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Technology Hardware & Equipment 2,184.75 -4.32%
Leisure Goods 25,290.93 -2.22%
Software & Computer Services 1,803.02 -2.16%
Automobiles & Parts 2,843.15 -1.92%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,305.86 -1.56%