Sector movers: Miners pace gains, but HSBC drags on banks

Miners jumped to the top of the leaderboard after rate-setters at the US central bank lowered their interest rate projections for 2017 and 2018 overnight and opted to stay put on policy rates.

The announcements led to a move higher in global equities and provided a boost to the commodities index.

As of 1651 BST Bloomberg's commodity index was up by 0.93% to 85.69, with three-month copper up by 1.6% to $4,832.25 per metric tonne in LME trading and similarly dated nickel futures up by 2.1%.

Hochschild Mining was at the head of the pack, followed by other issues which more heavily exposed to precious metals such as Fresnillo or Randgold Resources.

Glencore and Evraz also stood out.

Shares in the personal goods space also got a boost, with some analysts having recently made the observation that it is increasingly a so-called yield play, benefiting when interest rate expectations fall back.

Oil equipment and services was again on the up, while out in the Banks arena HSBC acted as a drag on the sector gauge, as the stock's advance was broken by technical resistance around the 600p area.

Top performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining 1,597.46 +4.92%
Mining 12,363.40 +4.21%
Forestry & Paper 17,665.03 +2.37%
Personal Goods 31,552.07 +2.36%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,478.19 +2.22%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Banks 3,635.80 -0.41%
Equity Investment Instruments 8,234.63 -0.26%
Mobile Telecommunications 5,012.57 -0.06%
Alternative Energy 0.00 0.00%
Alternative Investment Instruments NULL 0.00%