Financials, Fixed-line telecoms pace gains

Life insurers, Fixed line telecommunications, Banks and financial services paced jumped after a flurry of polls over the weekend pointed to renewed momentum for the 'Remain' camp.

The news sent the Footsie to its largest one-day advance since February, with just three of the benchmark's components, Randgold Resources, Rexam and Fresnillo in the red.

The first phone poll conducted entirely after last Thursday's tragic killing of MP Jo Cox showed 'Remain' had regained the lead, with pollsters Survation on behalf of the Mail on Sunday finding a majority of 45% of respondents backing the option of the UK remaining inside the EU, versus 42.0% who favoured 'Leave'.

Paddy Power said that, by 1430 BST on Monday, Remain was trading at odds that implied an 80% chance, thanks to more than 10 five-figure bets over the weekend, with more than 70% of the total money the bookmaker has taken being for Remain so far.

That saw shares in the likes of Hargreaves Lansdown, Lloyds, RBS, Barclays and Aviva rocket.

In the case of fixed-line telecoms providers, in a research note sent to clients UBS analyst Polo Tang pointed out how UK-centric stocks such as Sky, BT and TalkTalk had already underperformed going into the EU referendum, adding that should the UK vote to remain Tang he would expect to see a rebound in the shares of those three names.

Industrials, metals and mining was again the best performing sector as shares in its sole-component, steel-maker Evraz, benefitted from data out over the weekend revealing an accelerating in house price gains in China during May.

Home prices in China's 70 major cities accelerated from a 6.2% year-on-year pace in April to a 6.9% year-on-year rate in May.

However, prices rose in 60 out of 70 of the country's main urban centres in May, down from 65 in April, according to figures published on Saturday morning by the National Bureau of Statistics.

Nevertheless, the news was enough for Chinese rebar futures to end the Monday session with gains of 0.4% at 2,062 yuan ($313) a tonne.

Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,201.54 +11.82%
Life Insurance 6,726.69 +4.95%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,845.05 +4.66%
Financial Services 8,706.20 +4.54%
Automobiles & Parts 6,703.23 +4.25%