Sector movers: Banks and insurers pace gains, Evraz and miners drag

Cyclicals drove gains on the FTSE indices as trading resumed after the Bank holiday, although it was food producers which did best, with an upgrade out of RBC giving shares in Associated British Foods a boost.

The broker upgraded its recommendation on stock in the owner of Primark to outperform, while hiking its target price from 2,800p to 3,400p.

Construction related stocks also put in a good showing, especially those with the greatest exposure to the US, such as Ashtead and CRH.

Banks and insurers were also wanted, tracking gains in their peers on the other side of the Pond since last Friday´s somewhat hawkish round of Fed speakers.

To take note of perhaps, in a research note published on 29 August analysts at UBS said UK banks "are fine" when it comes to the risk of higher capital requirements for lenders.

Nevertheless, analyst Daniele Brupbacher recommended investors steer clear of the likes of BBVA and StanChart for "company-specific reasons".

"Regulatory visibility will increase towards the end of 2016 as the Basel Committee is likely to announce updated leverage ratio requirements and a potential 'floor concept'."

Evraz was a standout-faller once again, as rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 2.2% overnight to close at 2,422 yuan per tonne, a three-week low.

On 22 August, analysts at Russian broker Aton reportedly kicked off their coverage of the company´s shares with a 'sell' recommendation, pointing out how that the stock was trading at 6.5 times operating earnings versus its sector peers at 5.6.

Market commentary had also recently been highlighting the company´s elevated gearing.

Miners were all generally lower, as the Bloomberg commodity index continued to cede ground, to trade at 83.66 or 1.0% lower as of 1950 BST and the greenback continued advancing.

Top performing sectors so far today
Food Producers & Processors 8,806.99 +2.30%
Banks 3,560.32 +1.75%
Construction & Materials 6,341.99 +1.52%
Life Insurance 6,904.85 +0.59%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 2,020.16 +0.53%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,300.03 -4.42%
Mining 11,366.87 -4.40%
Forestry & Paper 16,921.80 -1.63%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,516.98 -1.61%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,202.43 -1.53%