Sector movers: Miners boosted by weaker dollar, strike threat

Shares of Industrial Metals and Mining firms led gains on Tuesday as a weaker dollar, supportive news-flow for crude oil and copper futures and low trading volumes in the latter lifted commodity prices.

As of 1800 GMT, the US dollar spot index was fading 0.73% to 99.697 after US trade chief Peter Navarro told the FT the European single currency was "grossly undervalued", sending the Bloomberg commodity index up by 0.86% to 87.7742.

Navarro's remarks rattled dollar traders which had yet to regain their balance in the wake of the previous weekend's confusion at American airports following the immigration curbs put in place by the new US administration.

Copper futures also got a leg up, rising 2.66% to $2.7255 a pound, aided by low trading volumes around the Chinese Lunar New Year and speculation of an impending strike at Antofagasta's Escondida mine in Chile, according to one trader.

Against the above backdrop, stock in KAZ Minerals led gains in the Mining sector, followed by shares in the likes of precious metals miners Acacia and Hochschild.

Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,320.55 +2.15%
Mining 16,756.73 +1.22%
Financial Services 9,578.21 +0.98%
Software & Computer Services 1,836.34 +0.91%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,442.36 +0.66%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Construction & Materials 6,687.77 -0.95%
Food & Drug Retailers 3,049.19 -0.83%
Life Insurance 7,625.22 -0.83%
Mobile Telecommunications 4,351.29 -0.80%
Banks 4,271.88 -0.57%