Sector movers: Builders and REITS slip, geopolitics boost Big Oil and gold miners

Personal Goods was at the bottom of the pile on the FTSE 350 at the start of the second quarter, as fashion retailer Burberry Group's shares fell back towards their five-year lows.

Retailers more generally also fared poorly, as did interest rate sensitive areas of the market including homebuilders and REITs.

Dragging on the latter was a spike in longer-term Gilt yields with that at the 10-year tenor rising by 14.5 basis points to 4.085%.

The reason? A stronger-than-expected reading on the US ISM factory survey published the day before, when London markets had been closed for the bank holiday.

Meanwhile, an in-line reading on the February JOLTS report in the U.S., which was published on Tuesday, appeared to reflect a still tight labour market.

And as Greg Bartalos at Barron's Advisor noted, San Francisco Fed boss, Mary Daly, said there is "really no urgency" to cut rates.

To the upside, Big Oil led the way as news that an Israeli strike against the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus pushed crude oil back to its October highs.

As an aside, the above saw shares of BP push up against so-called technical resistance.

Industrial miners also did well on the heels of Chinese factory survey data that was also published during the weekend.

Precious metals miners were bid higher as gold futures on COMEX hit the $2,300/oz. mark.

At the weekend, Poland's Prime Minister warned that a war was already afoot in Europe, having begun two years before, and that Europeans were unprepared to defend themselves.

He reportedly said that "we had not lived through such a situation since 1945. I know that this sounds devastating, particularly for people from the youngest generation, but we must be mentally prepared for this new era. We are in a pre-war era. I am not exaggerating. It is more evident with each passing day."

"Confusingly, Treasury yields have not supported gold’s recent rally, with the [U.S.] 10-year still sitting at 4.3%, vs 3.8% in December which triggered gold’s previous rally," chipped in analysts at SP Angel.

"Asian market trading has been strong, with China’s central bank also reportedly been boosting reserves. ETF holdings remain low, providing additional catalyst potential should the current rally persist."

Top performing sectors so far today

Oil, Gas and Coal 9,127.31 +3.11%

Industrial Metals & Mining 6,432.35 +2.76%

Precious Metals and Mining 9,636.12 +2.31%

Beverages 23,286.93 +0.74%

Medical Equipment and Services 11,096.04 +0.65%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Personal Goods 16,530.83 -3.11%

Retailers 3,952.36 -3.01%

Real Estate Investment & Services 2,203.21 -2.72%

Household Goods & Home Construction 12,707.85 -2.65%

Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,269.96 -2.40%