Sector movers: Oil and Gas, Defence pace gains

Oil and Gas shares paced gains on the FTSE 350 alongside those of Defence companies.

Spearheading gains among the former was BP on the back of its latest quarterly numbers.

The oil giant unveiled a $1.75bn share buyback programme and some analysts sounded a confident note that volatile oil prices would eventually feed into the company's bottom line.

In the background, front-dated Brent crude oil futures were ahead by around 1% to $78.77 a barrel on the ICE amid the ongoing heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

Worth noting, they were the best performing asset type year-to-date.

Despite that, oil futures continued to be range-bound.

Furthermore, reports on Tuesday indicated that terrorist group Hamas's response to a proposed truce had been "positive".

The response was expected to be discussed with Israeli officials the next day.

Within Defence, BAE Systems shares notched up fresh record highs while those of Rolls-Royce were also knocking at multi-year highs.

Top performing sectors so far today

Oil, Gas and Coal 8,449.33 +2.23%

Aerospace and Defence 9,225.07 +2.18%

Industrial Transportation 3,853.40 +2.17%

Industrial Engineering 13,726.12 +2.15%

Life Insurance 6,084.30 +2.13%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,974.69 -0.77%

Telecommunications Service Providers 1,756.69 -0.68%

Electricity 9,968.88 -0.67%

Beverages 23,333.96 -0.46%

Tobacco 27,071.07 -0.38%