Sector movers: Rolls Royce jumps, miners down on another 'unusual' day of losses in gold

UK stocks stabilised on Tuesday even as analysts and investors tried to determine whether or not recent losses in global stock markets were a simple correction or if more losses lay immediately ahead.

In the background, the Greenback was being bid higher, pushing cable down by 0.67% to 1.2691 and thus contributing to gains in London's top-flight index.

Melrose Industries paced gainers on the FTSE 100, followed close behind by a jump in shares of Rolls Royce.

JP Morgan was responsible for the latter, having upped its end-2025 target price for the shares by 13% to 535p due to the "increasing evidence that RR is becoming a more resilient company."

But the second-tier index was also in the black by the end of trading with the leaderboard peppered by Closed End Investments.

Going the other way, precious metals miners were again under selling pressure - and "unusually so".

In the background, futures for the so-called yellow metal were under pressure, the same as the day before, despite ongoing risks of various sorts.

For analysts at Commerzbank, losses in gold futures despite the panic in markets were either because investors believed hopes for more than two fed rate cuts were "unrealistic" or because they were being sold in phases to offset losses in other assets, as per Dow Jones Newswires.

Similar price patterns had been observed in 2008 and 2022, but on those occasions the weakness had not lasted long, they reportedly added.

Top performing sectors so far today

Aerospace and Defence 10,893.05 +2.98%

Closed End Investments 11,698.03 +1.63%

Construction & Materials 11,248.51 +1.15%

General Industrials 7,293.80 +1.06%

Medical Equipment and Services 11,832.61 +1.01%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Precious Metals and Mining 9,760.07 -2.80%

Real Estate Investment & Services 2,244.84 -2.31%

Chemicals 7,940.15 -1.35%

Personal Goods 11,226.44 -1.22%

Automobiles & Parts 969.14 -1.14%