Sector movers: Telcos dodge losses as miners, Big Oil drag

Telecommunications and pharma issues found a bid as stocks in the Materials space lost ground amid risk-off trading in the wake of the past weekend's events which saw a significant amount of confusion in the US, and to an extent in many other countries, over the scope of the temporary travel bans imposed by the US administration on travelers and refugees from several mainly Muslim countries.

Pacing gains among the former, Vodafone confirmed it was in talks over merging its struggling Indian business with that of its rival Idea Cellular, which is part of the Aditya Birla Group.

In parallel, BT Group found a small bid as analysts at Barclays reiterated their overweight stance on the fixed line operator, albeit while marking down their target price from 525p to 475p.

"Even though Enterprise weakness has exceeded cost cutting potential this year and next, we do see further cost cutting potential (>£1bn over 2 years) likely to offset any potential further weakness or strategic capex increases," Barclays said.

Weighing on bulk metals miners, as of 1640 GMT March 2017 copper futures on COMEX were down 1.52% to $2.6485/oz..

Shares in the oil patch meanwhile were getting hammered following news, after the close of trading on Friday, that the number of onshore US oil rigs jumped by 15 over the latest week to reach 566, to well above the 498 in place at the end of the same week one year ago.

The above data, from US oilfield services provider Baker Hughes, sent front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures down by 0.32% to $55.34 a barrel.

For its part, shares in Tesco led grocers lower, as they surrendered part of the previous session's advance.

Speculation was mounting that the competition regulator would intervene in the Booker acquisition. “With the acquisition of the small convenience stores such as Budgens, Premier and Londis, there are fears the grocery giant could exert undue influence within the convenience store market to the detriment of independent store owners,” CMC Markets’ Michael Hewson said.

Top performing sectors so far today
Mobile Telecommunications 4,393.82 +1.31%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 12,951.93 +0.24%
Media 7,731.72 +0.15%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,481.29 +0.06%
Alternative Energy 0.00 0.00%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,264.42 -3.51%
Food & Drug Retailers 3,081.01 -2.36%
Oil & Gas Producers 8,037.54 -2.28%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 15,954.23 -2.22%
Mining 16,539.24 -1.92%