Sector movers: Tobacco, oil & gas and mining drag FTSE 100 into the red

Tobacco, oil & gas and mining stocks knocked the FTSE 100 down on a day of few positives over the course of Tuesday's trading in London.

At 16:25, the FTSE 100 was trading down 93.98 or 1.36% at 6797.45 with tobacco stocks taking the biggest knock of the day. The decline arrived early on during the trading session on news that US Federal Trade Commission had recommended a lawsuit to prevent a proposed $27bn merger between tobacco giants Reynolds American and Lorillard.

As part of the proposed deal, British American Tobacco, which owns a 43% stake in Reynolds, would have had to invest $4.7bn to maintain its stake in the group. Additionally, Reynolds said it would sell its Blu, Kool and Salem brands to Imperial Tobacco, pending approval. Unsurprisingly, both tobacco blue-chips took a knock with British American Tobacco down 2.64% and Imperial Tobacco off 3.39%.

With both oil benchmarks testing cyclical lows, oil & gas stocks endured another troubling session. In afternoon trading, hardly any oil and gas shares, including those of BG Group, BP and Shell, were in the green. However, shares in Gulf Keystone took the biggest battering, trading down 9.88%, having been almost 12% lower at one point following the independent upstart’s announcement of a £30m share placing.

Oilfield services stocks were also largely in the red, none more so than Petrofac after Canaccord Genuity cut its rating for the company from 'buy' to 'hold' after an "impressive run" in the stock over recent months. The broker pointed out that Petrofac's valuation is currently trading close to sector peers Wood Group and Amec Foster Wheeler.

Turmoil in the mining sector continued as Deutsche Bank said its calculations pointed to commodities being the worst performing asset class for the first quarter of 2015. Additionally, Bloomberg reported a $1.23bn net outflow from US commodities exchange-traded funds. Mining majors Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Anglo American were all down. Antofagasta also finished marginally in the red after it quashed rumours about a merger with copper producing peer Teck Resources.

On a day of few positives, the general retailers segment was one of the few to finish in the green. DIY retailer Kingfisher impressed investors with plans to close 60 stores, as new chief executive Véronique Laury announced full-year results and set out her plans for a "very different" company. The company announced a £200m cash return for the coming financial year as it revealed adjusted annual profits fell 7.5% to £675m last year.

Kingfisher's shares rose 5.51% at one point to 384.90p, making it Tuesday's top performing share.

Five Worst Performing Sectors:

Tobacco 41.197.44 -1204.49 -2.84%
Mining 13,704.62 -292.77 -2.09%
Oil & Gas Producers 6,944.88 -128.90 -1.82%
Personal Goods 26,518.86 -483.79 -1.79%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 18,410 -323.33 1.73%