Sector movers: Miners and oil service firms pace gains

Miners were pushed higher by rising prices for metals and positive comments from some top brokers.

Contributing to the price action, analysts at Credit Suisse bumped up their 2017 price projections for thermal and coking coal, from $55 and $94 per tonne to $60 and $119, respectively.

The broker kept its forecasts for base metals price unchanged, while reiterating a "cautious" view towards copper, but bullish outlook for zinc.

In the same note, it raised its target prices for BHP Billiton (target price: 1150p), Rio tinto (target price: 2300p), Glencore (target price: 2200p) and Anglo American (target price: 950p).

Price action in the commodities space on Monday was in keeping with the broker´s updated price projections, with three-month LME-traded zinc gaining 1.4% to $2,246.00 per metric tonne but with similarly-date copper futures down by 0.3% to $4,767.00.

Food and rug retailers were also on the front foot, with Morrison´s benefitting from an upwards price target revision by Deutsche Bank from 165p to 200p.

In a separate note, also published on Monday, Credit Suisse initiated coverage of Petrofac and Wood Group at 'outperform'.

Shares in Evraz were also notably higher, pushing its sector gauge to the top of the leaderboard, even after the most-traded rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down by 0.9% at 2,239 yuan per tonne, an almost three-month low.

Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,448.75 +6.67%
Mining 11,640.68 +4.25%
Food & Drug Retailers 2,822.53 +2.72%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 14,929.92 +2.51%
Forestry & Paper 17,363.43 +2.22%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Technology Hardware & Equipment 2,119.94 -1.57%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,435.86 -0.40%