Sector movers: Sellers caught on the hop by Putin's remarks

Short sellers were caught on the hop heading into the weekend by positive remarks from the Russian President regarding the talks held with Ukrainian negotiators the day before, in Turkey.

Vladimir Putin reportedly said Russian diplomats had seen "certain positive shifts" at the negotiations, although he did not offer further details.

Analysts however were exceedingly cautious.

"Investors might find that trying to build a rally on comments from Vladimir Putin is a bit of a fools' errand, but that has been the theme of the day," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.

"While I would love nothing more than to believe what he said to be true, I would caution that Putin has said a lot in recent weeks, almost all of which has been untrustworthy," was Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda's take on matters.

"With that in mind, I'm hesitant to feel in any way optimistic and while we have seen a bump in the markets, it would appear I'm in the majority on this one."

Nevertheless, the more cyclical areas of the markets, including Autos, Construction, Travel&Leisure, and Industrial Engineering all finished the day higher, while defensives were on the back foot.

Top performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 2,531.80 +3.62%

Construction & Materials 6,903.28 +3.59%

Travel & Leisure 6,612.14 +3.18%

Industrial Transportation 3,740.56 +2.83%

Industrial Engineering 15,423.86 +2.44%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,071.04 -1.68%

Electricity 10,275.01 -1.53%

Tobacco 31,850.33 -0.98%

Precious Metals and Mining 12,505.87 -0.72%

Food Producers 6,090.87 -0.54%