Sector movers: BT, oil shares lead gains

A motley mix of interest rate sensitive stocks and cyclicals paced gains at the end of the week.

BT Group was at the top of the leaderboard after news it had reached a deal with Ofcom to "legally separate" Openreach.

"Investors are making the bet that competitors like TalkTalk and Sky pull back from lobbying Ofcom for BT’s complete separation from Openreach. We tend to think TalkTalk would be better to focus on its own security issues given the revelations of customers being defrauded for Indian call centres, and Sky has the 21st Century Fox takeover to deal with.

"However, the longer term reaction could be different. What is quite likely a first step towards complete separation of BT from one of its biggest profit centres and a clear competitive advantage is not a positive for the share price," mused Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at LCG.

Shares in the oil patch were also higher, having been boosted by a bounce in crude oil futures earlier in the day.

However, by 1634 GMT front month Brent crude oil futures were off by 0.539% to $51.90 a barrel on the ICE ahead of the release of the weekly US rig count data later in the day, courtesy of Baker Hughes.

Of interest, Lawler also pointed to the reappearance of recurring rumours around a possible bid from Exxon for BP as a possible driver of share price gains in that space.

Going the other way were the most interest rate-sensitive segments of the market such as real estate investment trusts and electricity.

Top performing sectors so far today
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,928.58 +3.80%
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,223.46 +3.02%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,631.41 +2.53%
Oil & Gas Producers 7,957.19 +2.37%
Food & Drug Retailers 3,021.89 +1.52%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,901.31 -1.19%
Electricity 8,939.32 -0.77%
Media 7,717.96 -0.71%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,570.97 -0.46%
Automobiles & Parts 8,667.21 -0.43%