Sector movers: Exporters gain on trade optimism, telecoms dip

Automobiles and parts, general industrials, retailers, construction and media sectors were the diverse driving forces in London on Tuesday, while telecoms and healthcare and pharma sectors were not acting as much of a brake.

Automobiles and parts, tech components, general industrials and other capital goods stocks were on the up, boosted by bullish sounds emanating from US-China trade talks and positive analyst opinions. Aerospace and defence was also higher.

US and Chinese negotiators were reported to be making progress in talks, including on purchases of US goods and services, but the two sides are still not ready to finalise a deal. US trade delegation member, Steven Winberg, said talks had gone well and that they were set to continue on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump said on Twitter: "Talks with China are going very well".

Market analyst Joshua Mahony at IG said stock market gains have been hugely influenced by the reports of an extension to the trade talks. "No doubt, the substantial selloff in play over the past seven months has been hugely influenced by the economic impact of this trade spat, and thus there is reason to believe markets will rise and fall according to how talks progress."

Elsewhere, Rolls-Royce led the aerospace sector, possibly boosted by news about major customers Boeing and Airbus. The US-based aircraft maker boasted late on Tuesday that it had set a new airplane delivery record last year and said it had expanded its order backlog, while European rival Airbus was reported by Reuters to have enjoyed record deliveries in December and to hit its main industrial target of 800 deliveries for 2018. Boeing said it finished the year with an order book of 893 net orders, including 203 airplane sales in December, while industry source told Reuters that Airbus was also poised to announce net orders above the rate of deliveries.

A Bank of America Merrill Lynch note on capital goods provided some assistance to a few sectors. In particular, it said the valuation of Melrose Industries, which is still listed in the construction & materials sector, was particularly appealing given scope for disposals. Similarly, paper and packaging companies were lifted by comments from Jefferies, where analysts said there was an opportunity for a re-rating in the sector as the market is too negative.

The construction sector was higher despite a gloomy trading update from building materials supplier SIG, reporting an “increasingly challenging” UK construction environment in the second half, with commercial construction demand dampened by macroeconomic uncertainty, while trading conditions in European construction markets were said to have slowed materially.

While SIG shares fell 5%, Polypipe's were up more than 3% and those Ibstock and CRH were also in the green.

Elsewhere in the construction industry, Kier was surging and Babcock was trundling along nicely after they both won spots on the North West Construction Hub’s high-value framework. Kier was the only listed company to win spots on all three lots, trade magazine Building reported, while Galliford Try and Morgan Sindall were both been dumped by the procurement body from the £1.5bn deal.

Construction and many other sectors were being lifted by the general upbeat session on the back of the US trade talks and also reports of a possible delay to the Brexit date, with a pushing back of Article 50. The pound was softer, however.

The media sector was among those enjoying the uplift, with ITV leading the pack as analysts speculated that the broadcaster could be closer to agreeing a lucrative retransmission deal with Sky, following the Sky-STV deal overnight.

Among the fallers, telecoms was dragged down by BT, with several likely triggers.

A bearish note from JPMorgan Cazenove was one, with analysts saying that as revenue growth remains elusive, leverage stretched they see "little fundamental justification for buying telcos" after the recent rally.

The Caz analysts conceded that one hope is industry M&A, something that has been a key part of BT's share price spikes in recent years.

BT had been boosted recently by speculation that it was a takeover target for Deutsche Telekom, which was picked up in one of the Sunday newspapers. The report noted that DT's standstill agreement ends on the 29 January, having been unable to increase its holding in BT above 15% for three years.

"There have been similar press reports before and last time these gained little traction in the market," said Deutsche Bank.

Meanwhile, Vodafone was hit by a double-downgrade from RBC Capital Markets.

Top performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts +5.32%

Technology Hardware & Equipment +3.94%

General Industrials +3.77%

Aerospace and Defence +3.31%

General Retailers +3.17%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Fixed Line Telecommunications -3.02%

Mobile Telecommunications -0.93%

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology -0.58%

Health Care Equipment & Services -0.27%

Personal Goods +0.04%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,893.80 1.22%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,269.98 1.63%
techMARK (TASX) 3,367.49 0.88%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Smith (DS) (SMDS) 329.20p 7.58%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 177.15p 6.52%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 860.00p 6.23%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 276.90p 6.21%
Next (NXT) 4,858.00p 6.19%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,208.00p 6.15%
ITV (ITV) 133.40p 5.79%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 727.50p 5.51%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,158.00p 5.27%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,843.50p 5.13%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BT Group (BT.A) 230.60p -3.09%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 213.04p -3.01%
Fresnillo (FRES) 898.42p -1.92%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,934.00p -1.18%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 156.10p -0.83%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,180.00p -0.62%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,840.20p -0.56%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,088.50p -0.40%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,415.50p -0.32%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,511.80p -0.17%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Computacenter (CCC) 1,050.00p 8.02%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 541.00p 7.98%
Serco Group (SRP) 109.30p 7.05%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,283.40p 6.01%
Just Group (JUST) 99.75p 5.89%
Greene King (GNK) 584.40p 5.64%
Rank Group (RNK) 149.80p 5.34%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,568.00p 5.16%
Playtech (PTEC) 433.00p 5.07%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 172.10p 5.07%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

SIG (SHI) 109.90p -5.75%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,637.50p -2.96%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 118.20p -2.07%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 637.90p -1.86%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 130.84p -1.76%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 197.50p -1.25%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 140.15p -1.13%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 689.50p -1.08%
Contour Global (GLO) 188.10p -0.95%
HGCapital Trust (HGT) 1,800.00p -0.83%