Sector movers: Miners exert drag on FTSE 350

Miners were again the biggest drag on the FTSE 350 after ratings agency Moody's lowered its outlook for China's sovereign debt from 'stable' to 'negative'.

On the back of the move, copper futures on COMEX gave back another 1.3% to $3.7855/lb..

The Greenback also strengthened with the U.S. dollar index adding 0.29% to 104.01.

Feeding those gains, longer-term government debt was again moving lower on either side of the Atlantic, but much more so in the UK.

In the case of the benchmark 10-year Gilt, its yield was falling precipitously, retreating by 17 basis points to 4.037%.

Yields on similarly-dated U.S. Treasury notes on the other hand were only off by 10 basis points to 4.184%.

Worth noting in the case of the U.S., the Department of Labor's Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey revealed an unexpected decline in the number of job openings from 9.35m for September to 8,733m last month (consensus: 9.4m).

In any case, interest rate sensitive areas of the market such as REITs, Telecoms, and Electricity all benefited from the decline in Gilt yields.

Top performing sectors so far today

Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,246.06 +1.64%

Electronic & Electrical Equipment 9,249.93 +1.62%

Telecommunications Service Providers 1,963.77 +1.59%

Leisure Goods 25,984.46 +1.54%

Electricity 11,033.62 +1.19%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Precious Metals and Mining 9,821.85 -4.09%

Industrial Transportation 3,486.01 -3.13%

Industrial Metals & Mining 6,481.74 -1.33%

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 19,690.47 -1.17%

Tobacco 28,067.29 -1.17%