Real estate stocks pace gains, oil drags

Real estate-related stocks boosted London´s top flight index on Monday after the results of another poll released over the weekend appeared to shorten the odds that the UK would vote to remain in the UK.

The latest Opinium/Observer referendum poll put the so-called Bremain camp at 44%, four points ahead of so-called Brexit group at 40%, The Guardian reported on Saturday. Of those polled, 14% remained undecided.

In a study released on Monday morning, the Treasury estimated that under a short-term 'shock' scenario - which it described as cautious" - Britain´s gross domestic product would be 3.6 percentage points lower than it the 4.3 percentage point rise it was currently penciling.

Industrial transportation was the largest percentage point gainer after analysts at RBC Capital Markets upgraded their recommendation on shares of Royal Mail from 'underperform' to ‘sector perform’ and lifted their price target from 445p to 525p.

News that Apple has asked its suppliers to prepare to ramp up for it to deliver 78m units of its updated iPhone models also gave a leg up to the likes of ARM and Laird.

Price target upgrades from HSBC on Weir Group and Rotork pushed shares of industrial engineers higher.

The broker lifted its target on Weir from 1,150p to 1,450p and on Rotork from 180p to 200p.

HSBC analysts led by Scott Cagehin told c lients they saw a potential trough in capìtal expenditures in fiscal year 2017, "[...] leading to reduced earnings downside risk for oil-exposed UK engineers and enhanced FY2018 prospects."

They also upgraded their recommendation on shares of the former from a 'hold' to a 'buy'.

Oil stocks were the main drag on both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 after Rokneddin Javadi, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co., said the country would not join in any freeze in oil output levels until its overseas sales had recovered to their pre-sanctions levels, in the second half of 2016.

Javadi said the Persian country´s oil exports would likely surpass 2.2m barrels a day by the height of summer, the Mehr news agency reported.

Top performing sectors today
Industrial Transportation 2,908.20 +3.67%
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,204.50 +2.86%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,186.59 +2.08%
Industrial Engineering 8,254.82 +1.09%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,728.60 +1.05%

Bottom performing sectors today
Mobile Telecommunications 5,062.98 -1.56%
Food & Drug Retailers 2,647.60 -1.43%
Oil & Gas Producers 6,103.07 -1.22%
Automobiles & Parts 6,366.55 -1.05%
Tobacco 49,175.14 -0.85%