Sector movers: Miners lead bounce as trade tensions ebb

Metal bashers and Miners led Thursday's bounce as global trade concerns came down a notch and investors dipped their toes back into equities, helped by gains in metals' prices, especially for copper.

Stoking risk-appetite were the less-aggressive comments out overnight from the White House on the administration's stance towards China.

Reflecting analysts' optimism regarding the potential impact of the ongoing trade tensions on world economic growth, Citi upgraded its view on BHP Billiton from 'neutral' to 'buy'.

"BHP has sold-off on concerns over a sluggish pick-up in Chinese economic activity post CNY and threats of tariffs derailing the global economy.

"Whilst recognising the risk of escalation, we do not see the increased protectionism as a major impediment to global growth. We also see upside risk to what BHP could realise in the divestment of its US shale assets based on recent transactions," Citi said.

Oil&Gas also figured prominently on the leaderboard after Credit Suisse became the second broker in as many days to sound a positive note on the space.

The Swiss broker initiated coverage of the Global Energy sector at 'overweight' while expressing a preference for UK energy names on a geographical basis.

In particular, the broker's analysts pointed out how the sector had decoupled from the forward oil price, but said they expected that link to re-appear.

Software also put in a solid performance as shares of Sophos bounced back sharply after the network cybersecurity solutions expert issued guidance for full-year billings growth towards the top end of the previously guided range of 20% to 22%.

Automobile stocks on the other hand were a drag, despite gains for the sector on the other side of the Channel, with the Stoxx 600's sector gauge adding 2.41% to 635.49.

Weighing on the sector was news that UK car sales plunged by 15.7% year-on-year in March, marking the 12th consecutive monthly drop.

Although March 2017 was a record month, the EY Item Club said there could be no masking the "disappointing and worrying" performance.

In the background, on the back of their significant de-rating, which has seen them register their worst performance out of 67 markets year-to-date, Citi analysts said UK shares offered an attractive value proposition, cushioned by an equity risk premium of roughly 6%.

Indeed, during the last 20 years, UK shares' dividend yield, then at 4%, had only been higher in 2008-09 and the gap between dividend and bond yields had only been wider on two prior occasions, they added - during WWI and WWII.

Top performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining +4.73%

Software & Computer Services +3.76%

Mining +3.21%

Oil & Gas Producers +3.09%

Forestry & Paper +3.08%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 9,725.44 -1.01%

Insurance (non-life) 3,123.63 -0.54%