Sector movers: Market chatter stocks gains in Wood Group, Paper Packaging

Cyclicals are pacing gains on a quiet day of summer trading on Wednesday, with analyst chatter dictating market moves, with what traders are left about in the City for the most part opting to sit on their hands ahead of tomorrow's expected conclusion, for now, of two days of trade talks between China and the US, even as they mull over the potential implications of the political storm unfolding over Capitol Hill.

Against that backdrop, gains in Wood Group had pushed Oil Equipment & Services to the top of the leaderboard, boosted by an upwards target price revision out of Numis.

Analysts at the broker had reportedly revised their target price on the stock from 740.0p to 820.0p, although did lower their stance on the shares from 'buy' to 'add'.

In their opinion, the prior day's share price reaction was the result of the more upbeat tone in management's forward guidance, both for the backhalf of 2018 as well as for the medium-term, while their own estimates for the company's EPS in 2018 and 2019 were in fact little changed.

Nevertheless, they too sounded an optimistic note, telling clients: " we think the investment risks have clearly fallen, and merit a higher implied target forward Price-to-Earnings multiple."

Further boosting share prices in the sector, overnight the American Petroleum Institute reportedly said that US oil inventories shrank by 5.17m barrels last week.

Paper Packaging stocks were right behind, benefiting from an upbeat note out of Jefferies.

Analyst Cole Hathorn raised his target prices for all three London-listed names in the space: DS Smith (to 540.0p), Mondi (to 2,500.0p) and Smurfit Kappa (to 3,750.0p).

Among the positive drivers for the group, Hathorn pointed out demand tailwinds linked to e-commerce and sustainability, a supportive pricing environment and opportunities for further sector consolidation.

"While we remain confident in the medium-term earnings outlook for the sector, we concede that re-rating upside for the sector is more limited from here than it was five years ago. Our Buy ratings are predicated on a solid medium-term earnings outlook and only modest c1x multiple expansion vs the three-year average," he said in a research note sent to clients.

"To be clear, we do believe multiples can go higher but not 2-3x higher from today's levels."

Top performing sectors so far today

Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,380.55 +4.80%

Forestry & Paper 24,259.91 +1.75%

Mining 16,860.60 +1.04%

Mobile Telecommunications 3,975.84 +0.81%

Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,641.74 +0.79%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Leisure Goods 8,517.60 -1.44%

Industrial Metals & Mining 4,295.57 -0.96%

Chemicals 16,497.50 -0.93%

Food Producers & Processors 7,084.34 -0.83%

Beverages 22,043.20 -0.48%