An odd couple, miners and utilities, pace advance

Miners and utilities leapt higher at the end of the week, after a weak US Jobs report sent the greenback and government bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic diving.

The Bloomberg commodity index was 0.40% higher to 87.0504 as of 19:18 BST – albeit off its intra-day highs of 87.65 – as the US dollar spot index slid 1.58% to 94.053.

Gold was a star performer, with the COMEX-traded August 2016 futures contract gaining 2.56% to $1,243.60.

That proved especially positive for the likes of Acacia Mining, Centamin, Randgold Resources and Fresnillo.

Copper futures on COMEX were also to be seen rising by 1.98% to $2.111/oz.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Gilt fell back by seven basis points to 1.28%, giving a boost to utility stocks.

Front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, on the other hand, were lower by 1.486% to $48.45 per barrel in NYMEX trading.

Oil was one of exceptions to the widespread advance seen in commodity futures immediately following the release Friday´s US Jobs figures.

In any case, stock in BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil brushed of the losses, helped by a bounce in oil futures near the end of the sesión.

However, data published after the close of markets in London - revealing a slight increase in the number of US oil rigs in operation - saw a renewed drop in oil prices.

Grocers also headed into the weekend nursing hefty losses, with Sainsbury one of the most prominent victims after analysts at HSBC cautioned clients that compant was losing sales as it prepared to integrate Argos and as competition intensified.

As on the Continent, auto stocks and insurers were among the worst decliners. According to some analysts, those two sectors were among the most tighly-linked to expectations for rising interest rates in the US – something which was cleary not the case on Friday.

Indeed, both had led gains in the previous session in anticipation of a largely in-line US employment report for May.

Nonetheless, shares of UK auto companies fared relatively better than their counterparts on the other side of the Channel, who also had to contend with a particularly sharp move higher in the single currency.

The DJ Stoxx 600 gauge of auto&parts companies closed the session with losses of 2.38% or 11.60 points to 476.73.

Top performing sectors so far today
Mining 8,928.49 +3.82%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,041.97 +1.56%
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,099.12 +1.55%
Tobacco 50,341.23 +1.42%
Oil & Gas Producers 6,145.34 +1.17%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Food & Drug Retailers 2,640.56 -3.71%
Automobiles & Parts 6,516.19 -1.35%
Life Insurance 6,883.27 -1.11%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 12,773.75 -1.05%
Construction & Materials 5,233.05 -1.00%