Sector movers: Oil and Gas, Industrial Metals pace losses

Oil&Gas and Industrial Metals plummeted on Tuesday amid a downdraft on the wider FTSE 350, despite a large move lower in sterling.

Triggering the spike in risk aversion, Americans returned from the 4 July break in selling spirits following the release of a string of softer than expected economic data in the US over the last few weeks.

Against that backdrop, Brent crude oil futures on the ICE were walloped, retreating by 11.85% to $101.65.

In parallel, shortly after the close of trading in London, September-dated copper futures on COMEX were falling 5.26% to $3.4145 a pound on COMEX.

Precious metals' prices were also under pressure with August gold futures on COMEX down by 2.0% at $1,765.40/oz. and the September contract for silver shedding 2.7% to $19.14/oz..

Robbing gold and silver of their safe-haven allure was the Greenback, as the US dollar index popped 1.41% higher to 106.62, putting it back at levels last seen in 2002.

Not surprisingly, shares of precious metals miners also traded on the back foot.

Life insurers meanwhile fell tracking a slide in longer-term Gilts with the yield on the benchmark 10-year issue down by nearly 15 basis points to 2.05%.

Top performing sectors so far today

Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,684.00 +0.81%

Real Estate Investment & Services 2,435.10 +0.73%

Industrial Transportation 2,733.34 +0.40%

Chemicals 11,615.19 +0.34%

Beverages 26,777.33 +0.25%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Oil, Gas and Coal 6,849.32 -7.97%

Industrial Metals & Mining 5,965.84 -6.58%

Life Insurance 6,201.37 -5.05%

Precious Metals and Mining 9,536.46 -4.66%

Medical Equipment and Services 10,089.57 -3.99%