Sector movers: Oil stocks slide despite strong prices, dollar hits miners
Oil producers and miners led an afternoon retreat on Wednesday, while drinks and cigarette companies were looking more perky.
Oil engineers and oil producer were almost all in the red, even though Brent crude remained just under $82 per barrel.
The American Petroleum Institute revealed a surprise rise in stockpiles overnight and on Wednesday the Energy Information Administration report showed a larger increase in oil and gasoline stockpiles than traders expected, but while crude prices wobbled they bounced back like a weeble.
The FTSE 350 portion of the mining sector was universally in the red, led on the downside by gold diggers as traders eyed the rising dollar ahead of the US central bank rate's announcement, with Fresnillo and Randgold Resources losing some of their lustre, even though the latter was upgraded by analysts at RBC Capital Markets.
"The metal’s strong inverse relationship with the US dollar continues, and a nudge higher in the greenback has hurt the metal," said market analyst David Madden at CMC Markets UK. "Gold can be very sensitive to announcements from the Federal Reserve, and it is likely we will see volatility spike this evening. Gold has been in a downward trend since April, and if the Fed issued a hawkish update, we could see another move to the downside."
Copper and platinum prices were also lower.
Drinks companies Diageo, Britvic and Coca-Cola HBC were all in the green, along with Fevertree and Nichols down on AIM.
USB published some research it had carried out into the drinking habits of millennials, finding Diageo to be "best placed"from its strong position in the whiskey category with millennials and Smirnoff's improved brand equity.
Top performing sectors so far today
Beverages 21,690.79 +0.91%
Tobacco 40,116.73 +0.61%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 14,614.45 +0.53%
Insurance (non-life) 3,334.81 +0.47%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 6,766.73 +0.45%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,644.83 -1.60%
Mining 17,795.55 -1.57%
Construction & Materials 6,113.74 -1.40%
Mobile Telecommunications 3,715.87 -1.37%
General Industrials 6,608.51 -1.13%
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,503.87 -0.05%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,454.62 -0.03%
techMARK (TASX) 3,497.17 0.04%
FTSE 100 - Risers
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,445.50p 3.84%
Croda International (CRDA) 5,218.00p 2.84%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,478.00p 2.72%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,690.00p 2.20%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,356.50p 1.72%
Kingfisher (KGF) 258.60p 1.41%
Centrica (CNA) 149.40p 1.39%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,570.00p 1.21%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,746.00p 1.09%
Halma (HLMA) 1,416.00p 0.85%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 825.40p -4.13%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,284.00p -3.22%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 207.90p -2.90%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,984.00p -2.48%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 885.80p -2.29%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,883.00p -1.87%
Next (NXT) 5,416.00p -1.85%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,667.80p -1.65%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 860.80p -1.60%
Evraz (EVR) 557.60p -1.45%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Card Factory (CARD) 193.30p 7.99%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 201.30p 4.33%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,892.00p 3.84%
Just Group (JUST) 82.05p 3.80%
Contour Global (GLO) 207.00p 3.40%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 600.00p 3.27%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 235.60p 2.61%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 668.40p 2.45%
IP Group (IPO) 131.20p 2.34%
Pantheon International (PIN) 2,148.00p 2.29%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
AA (AA.) 103.35p -13.51%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 157.30p -7.28%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 119.60p -6.42%
BCA Marketplace (BCA) 200.50p -5.20%
On The Beach Group (OTB) 489.00p -4.12%
Hunting (HTG) 808.50p -3.58%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,401.50p -3.34%
Kier Group (KIE) 995.00p -3.21%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 548.80p -3.18%
Ibstock (IBST) 234.80p -2.73%