Sector movers: Miners and lenders pace declines

Miners were again at or near the bottom of the pile on Tuesday amid talk of souring sentiment towards China's economic reopening, not least as a result of the ever present geopolitical tensions over Taiwan.

Adding to the selling pressure, as of 1713 BST the US dollar index was bouncing back by 0.57% to 101.92.

Going the other way, July copper futures on COMEX were falling by 2.57% to $3.8625/ib..

But there were other factors at work, notably the poorly-received quarterly results out of regional US lender First Republic.

At last count, the bank's shares were plummeting by 30%.

A looming vote in the US Congress, later on Wednesday, on the country's debt limit was also attracting a fair bit of attention.

More important, there was concern that US Treasury figures scheduled for release over the next week or two might reveal that the date when the federal government would exhaust the cash available under the current ceiling - because of lower tax receipts - might be reached in early June and not late July.

Although in the past the US had always avoided an actual default on its debts, the game of chicken between politicians on Capitol Hill had sometimes led to large amounts of very near-term volatility in financial markets as it did in 2011.

Top performing sectors so far today

Tobacco 32,690.80 +1.78%

Personal Goods 37,138.16 +1.39%

Telecommunications Service Providers 2,427.99 +1.14%

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 22,742.75 +1.08%

Beverages 29,105.46 +0.89%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining 6,550.07 -3.30%

Automobiles & Parts 1,635.67 -2.49%

Food Producers 6,717.38 -2.02%

Banks 3,456.78 -1.41%

Precious Metals and Mining 11,450.38 -1.30%