Engineers, oil equipment lead gains

Somewhat reduced angst around the outcome of the upcoming 23 June referendum saw shares of industrial engineers and banks bounce back, alongside a sharp bounce in oil equipment stocks as crude oil futures recovered.

The lull in the Brexit debate following Thursday's unfortunate events which cost the life of Labour MP Jo Cox was again seen by many market observers as the chief and wholly unexpected trigger behind the improved market sentiment globally.

To take note of however, for Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank the resistance from political bookmakers to give the 'Leave' odds any better than 34% thus far was a reflection of past experiences, including the referendums in Quebec and Scotland, where the differences between poll results and the actual vote tallies were so large that, extrapolating to the current situation, for 'Leave' to win the referendum would require that it manage a still greater lead than at present.

In any case, on Friday at least cable bounced back, rising by 0.99% to 1.4343. Likewise, the second-tier FTSE 250 could be seen 2.43% or 390.00 points higher at 16,422.04, versus the FTSE 100 which was up by 70.61 points or 1.19% to 6,021.09.

Also of interest, on 16 June analysts at Morgan Stanley pegged the odds of a win by the 'Bremain' option at 55.0%, on the expectation of a late swing in the polls.

The broker's strategy team, led by Graham Secker, estimated that under the 'Bremain' scenario the Footsie would rally back towards between 6,500 and 6,800 points, while if the UK left the EU then the Footsie might be expected to fall to between 5,000 and 5,300 points.

Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Engineering 8,191.96 +4.15%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 12,894.44 +3.47%
Banks 3,145.35 +3.27%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4,338.17 +3.26%
Financial Services 8,328.30 +3.08%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,074.49 -6.11%
Personal Goods 26,541.24 -0.67%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 11,782.06 -0.58%
Beverages 15,276.63 -0.50%
Tobacco 48,832.32 -0.42%