Sector movers: REITs do great, miners go underground
Real estate investment companies were the leading sector on Friday, while miners were tunnelling down.
Sparking the interest in the property sector, a consortium led by John Whittaker's Peel Group confirmed overnight that it was mulling an offer for shopping centre owner Intu Properties, sending its shares surging on Friday.
Peel and Saudi's Olayan Group together own almost 30% of Intu already and have further backing from deep-pocketed Canary Wharf owner Brookfield.
Intu's takeover by rival Hammerson fell apart earlier this year, with Hammerson also rejecting an approach from France's Klépierre, leading to speculation that Peel's interest could bring other buyers out of the woodwork. Klepierre said in April that it was still interested in acquiring assets in Britain.
Indeed, analysts at Citigroup said "the value of Intu could be attractive to others", mentioning Klepierre and Franco-Dutch giants Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.
Larger peer Hammerson was lifted, along with FTSE 100 property giants Land Securities and British Land.
Falls in the mining sector were led by Centamin, with the Egyptian gold miner cut its annual production target for the third straight quarter as delays in planned operational improvements led to a 25% fall in third quarter output.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said production for the third quarter came in around 15% below its forecasts, but that with production rates improving in September, the 145k oz forecast for the fourth quarter "would suggest that the operations are on track exiting the quarter". After the third straight guidance downgrade, "questions are likely to continue at around Sukari", otherwise there would be "compelling upside fundamentally from the investment case".
Among the blue chips, Antofagasta tumbled after a downgrade to 'sell' by Goldman Sachs, which highlighted a stretched valuation and uncompelling growth options.
Top performing sectors so far today
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,861.20 +1.52%
Food Producers & Processors 7,157.01 +0.70%
Automobiles & Parts 9,843.10 +0.66%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 4,720.38 +0.62%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,636.26 +0.44%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Mining 17,326.71 -3.03%
Leisure Goods 9,228.44 -2.89%
Software & Computer Services 1,780.02 -2.54%
Industrial Transportation 2,735.91 -2.02%
Construction & Materials 5,916.85 -1.77%