Sector movers: Gold miners gleam and utilities remain solid amid sell-off

With most sectors in the red, those still dotted with green were standing out, led by the grocery, telecoms and paper sectors.

The supermarket sector was notable for mostly moving higher, led by Ocado, Tesco and Morrisons but with Sainsbury's dropping. While Ocado is more of a technology play after its valuation has soared on tech deals with overseas retailers, Tesco and Morrisons are defensive investment options in light of the global stock market wobble.

Other defensives such as utilities were flat, amid high bond yields. Severn Trent, Pennon and Drax were slightly higher, while SSE, United Utilities and National Grid were flat. Centrica was down.

Precious metals miners shone amid the gloom, with Fresnillo, Randgold, Centamin and Hochschild all racking up strong gains as investors piled into the safety of gold.

The gold price gained ground in the face of the sharp market sell-off, sparked by rising bond yields.

"The heavy US debt burden means that traders are unlikely to perceive the US dollar as a safe haven in the event that yields keep rising," said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG. "Thus, we could be moving into a position where Gold comes back into favour after feeling relatively unloved throughout recent years.

Telecoms was higher as BT remained elevated, amid break-up speculation, while others in the sector were sagging, including Vodafone.

The automobiles and parts sector was up, but the sole representative is TI Fluid Systems. Half of the industrial engineering sector was in the green, with Hill & Smith leading, Bodycote and IMI higher.

Leading the fallers was the housebuilding sector, with Barratt Developments, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon slumping after the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed UK house sales expectations over the next 12 months have turned negative. The survey also revealed that the balance of surveyors reporting that house prices have risen over the last three months fell to -2 in September from +1 in August, below consensus expectations of +2.

Top performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 8,075.87 +2.41%
Food & Drug Retailers 3,711.64 +1.10%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,751.69 +0.72%
Forestry & Paper 20,089.01 +0.51%
Mobile Telecommunications 3,448.52 +0.49%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Leisure Goods 7,881.59 -4.68%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 14,754.66 -3.57%
Industrial Metals & Mining 4,809.60 -2.97%
Household Goods & Home Construction 16,158.65 -2.57%
Financial Services 9,715.29 -2.23%

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,054.17 -1.28%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,933.84 -1.59%
techMARK (TASX) 3,281.99 -1.02%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 836.00p 8.26%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,538.00p 5.17%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 778.40p 2.10%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,563.00p 1.72%
Tesco (TSCO) 219.60p 1.57%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,567.00p 1.56%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 248.65p 0.81%
BT Group (BT.A) 238.85p 0.78%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 153.92p 0.60%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,307.00p 0.57%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Barratt Developments (BDEV) 494.10p -11.01%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,856.50p -4.70%
3i Group (III) 859.97p -3.66%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 159.10p -3.60%
Schroders (SDR) 2,909.00p -3.19%
Next (NXT) 5,334.00p -3.05%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 634.40p -2.92%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,196.00p -2.87%
Evraz (EVR) 519.60p -2.73%
Halma (HLMA) 1,233.00p -2.68%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 99.62p 9.47%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 157.50p 5.63%
Amigo Holdings (AMGO) 212.15p 4.82%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 564.00p 3.96%
Polymetal International (POLY) 631.60p 3.75%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 200.00p 2.56%
Greene King (GNK) 499.50p 1.94%
Senior (SNR) 293.00p 1.81%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 1,012.00p 1.71%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,250.00p 1.63%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Keller Group (KLR) 705.00p -26.72%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,784.00p -12.29%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 284.00p -10.24%
Hays (HAS) 161.00p -8.52%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,704.00p -6.24%
VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund Ltd. (VOF) 319.00p -6.18%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 356.60p -5.46%
Edinburgh Dragon Trust (EFM) 325.00p -4.97%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 898.00p -4.87%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,155.00p -4.83%