Sector movers: Travel stocks slip on geopolitics, crude prices

Travel and Leisure names paced losses on the FTSE 350 at the start of the holiday-shortened week.

Dragging on that segment were the heightened geopolitical risks after an Egyptian soldier was killed by Israeli forces at a border crossing in southern Gaza.

A near 1% gain in crude oil futures ahead of OPEC+'s 2 June ministerial meeting also weighed on shares.

The oil cartel and its main allies, including Russia and Kazhakstan, were expected to keep their production curbs in place.

Retailers were also under the cosh after the latest shop price index from the British Retail Consortium and NeilsenIQ showed that shop price inflation slowed to 0.6% in May from 0.8% in April.

Heading in the other direction, precious metals miners' shares were buoyed by a 1.15% advance in gold futures to $2,383.90/oz. on COMEX.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan helped the sector by rolling out target price upgrades for Fresnillo and Hochschild.

Top performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 1,105.15 +3.43%

Precious Metals and Mining 10,818.75 +3.08%

Telecommunications Service Providers 2,042.18 +1.02%

Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,361.97 +1.02%

Industrial Transportation 4,254.87 +0.85%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Travel & Leisure 7,364.47 -3.27%

Food Producers 8,308.81 -2.50%

Beverages 21,336.66 -2.20%

Retailers 3,822.54 -1.89%

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 23,063.37 -1.89%