Sector movers: Food retailers marked down
The food retail sector was being marked down on Tuesday, while several other sectors such as bounced back from the recent sell-off as FOMO gripped investors.
Supermarkets were under focus as investors unwrapped fresh data from Kantar Worldpanel, showing the sector's sales were up 3.2% in the 12 weeks to 7 October.
Tesco slumped as the latest showed the supermarket chain's market share fell 0.6 percentage points to 27.4% as sales grew 0.9%.
"The result is somewhat surprising given how much publicity Tesco generated with its Jack’s discount concept launch in late-September," said Russ Mould at AJ Bell.
“Countless column inches and air time drew attention to the broader Tesco group as well as Jack’s and should have acted as free advertising to help get more people into its stores."
Sainsbury's was also weaker as it was again found to be the slowest growing of the 'big four'.
Mould said this was "less surprising" as the group has been having major issues with stock availability in its stores with countless pictures on social media showing empty shelves, meaning shoppers visiting its stores weren’t able to buy everything they wanted.
"That’s an awful situation given the wealth of competitors who would be happy to cater for these shoppers. Sainsbury’s next set of financial results are out on 8 November and shareholders and customers are going to want answers as to why so many shelves are bare.”
Morrisons was slightly lower even though it managed to hold onto its 10.3% market share as it grew sales 2.4%, equal-strongest of the big four with Asda. While Ocado's growth was strong at 7.5% and it was boosted by a double-upgrade to 'buy' at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Elsewhere, the tobacco remained volatile, with British American Tobacco upping its guidance for constant-currency earnings for the full year, but cutting that for its next-generation products to £900m from £1bn. Rival Imperial Tobacco was dragged down too.
Global cigarette and rolling tobacco industry volumes are predicted to be down around 3.5% for the year and down 4-4.5% in the USA.
Analysts at RBC Capital Markets said it was a "bit of a mixture", with the combustible tobacco business performing as expected but NGP sales expectations reduced, the expected currency headwind increased and currency swings hitting the de-leveraging trajectory.
The THP slowdown in Japan, a "very significant market", was a concern, and analysts at the bank said: "None of this alters our view that the long term investment case at BAT (and for the industry) is very opaque compared with what we have come to expect from tobacco, although none of the shortcomings we’ve mentioned can be attributed to management."
Elsewhere, sectors on the up included electronics and electricals, industrial engineers, support services and defence, despite a 0.6% gain in the pound. There was barely a red number to be seen on the board, with all four sectors swathed in green. This rally followed a two-week sell-off.
Investors jump on the opportunity to buy into the weakness that has permeated through stock markets over the past week, sai Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG: "We have seen substantial gains today, providing traders with the feeling that they must get on board or risk missing out."
Top performing sectors so far today
Leisure Goods 8,480.19 +4.29%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 6,103.96 +3.18%
Industrial Engineering 11,739.70 +3.10%
Support Services 7,622.11 +2.70%
Aerospace and Defence 5,021.80 +2.69%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Food & Drug Retailers 3,602.91 -2.06%
Tobacco 37,431.13 -1.27%
Oil & Gas Producers 9,202.28 -1.14%
Banks 3,741.46 -1.09%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 14,639.78 -0.99%
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,026.44 -0.04%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,989.57 0.99%
techMARK (TASX) 3,316.88 1.16%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 836.40p 5.90%
Experian (EXPN) 1,794.00p 3.52%
Halma (HLMA) 1,301.00p 3.42%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,539.00p 2.95%
Pearson (PSON) 814.00p 2.73%
Croda International (CRDA) 4,588.00p 2.71%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 2,021.00p 2.46%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 887.80p 2.45%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 305.50p 2.31%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,318.00p 2.29%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tesco (TSCO) 207.10p -4.12%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,920.00p -2.66%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 286.20p -2.25%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,669.60p -1.83%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 300.20p -1.70%
Just Eat (JE.) 610.60p -1.61%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,278.50p -1.58%
Glencore (GLEN) 314.00p -1.46%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,053.00p -1.36%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,508.50p -1.30%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Convatec Group (CTEC) 161.05p 7.37%
Drax Group (DRX) 388.80p 6.23%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 530.00p 6.13%
Equiniti Group (EQN) 214.00p 5.94%
Meggitt (MGGT) 522.80p 5.72%
Kier Group (KIE) 914.50p 5.48%
Capita (CPI) 128.61p 5.03%
RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI) (RHIM) 4,074.00p 4.89%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 6,470.00p 4.69%
Polymetal International (POLY) 711.61p 4.49%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 342.30p -7.41%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,252.00p -4.86%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 485.70p -3.75%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 403.00p -3.73%
Premier Oil (PMO) 123.50p -3.44%
BTG (BTG) 547.00p -2.93%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 223.10p -2.53%
Just Group (JUST) 82.10p -2.49%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 2,628.00p -2.30%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 45.96p -2.30%