Sector movers: Evraz and Glencore pace losses

Industrial Metals and Mining companies' shares bore the brunt of selling at the end of the week, with Evraz and Glencore in turn the worst performer in their respective sectors.

Russian steel miner Evraz was under the cosh again on Friday after having said in the previous session that half-year revenue fell due to weak steel prices and low demand, although it remained “cautiously optimistic” about the second half.

For the six months ended 30 June, revenues decreased by 27.6% to $3.54bn, compared to the same period last year.

Acting as a backdrop, commodities were generally weaker in Friday afternoon trading as the US dollar bounced back from the weakness seen in the previous session.

As of 13:30 BST three-month LME traded copper futures were off by 0.6% to $4,787.00 per metric tonne.

Glencore took a hit from a downgrade out of Australian broker Macquarie, whose analysts argued that the commodity trader's strong debt reduction efforts were already priced into the stock.

Offsetting some of the drag from Glencore, Kaz Minerals racked up stellar gains for the second day running as Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’ saying development risks are receding following the first-half results.

“Our concerns around KAZ have centred around execution risks at the two main growth projects and funding risks due to high levels of debt. Both are diminishing in our view and, alongside better than expected earnings we upgrade to outperform.”

CS said it remains cautious on copper prices over the next 12 months but pointed out that a third of KAZ revenues are from gold/silver/zinc, cash costs are low and copper production is set to double in the next two years.

On Thursday, KAZ shares surged after it reported a rise in first-half earnings and said its new Bozshakol project is on track for commercial output in the second half.

Top performing sectors so far today

Aerospace and Defence 4,622.06 +0.49%
Tobacco 57,007.16 +0.46%
Software & Computer Services 2,018.86 +0.43%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,390.40 +0.42%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,663.55 +0.34%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,462.53 -3.26%
Mining 12,020.50 -1.68%
Forestry & Paper 17,007.97 -1.07%
Life Insurance 6,912.84 -1.01%
Automobiles & Parts 7,210.60 -0.68%