Sectors movers: Precious metals miners shine, banks hit by Fed

A charge of the large cap mining brigade kept the FTSE 100 index just in positive territory through Thursday afternoon.

Boosted by the weaker dollar, commodity prices perked up, with copper up 2%, iron ore strengthening even more and precious metals sparkling.

"Gold has found its lustre again, gaining over $40 per oz in the last two days [to above $1,260 per oz] whilst silver has broken out to its highest since October," noted CMC analyst Jasper Lawler, with the white metal up 5% to $15.99 on the Comex.

"Precious metals are getting a double bump from a dovish Fed which makes non-yielding assets relatively more attractive and a sharp drop in European equities which is creating a demand for havens."

As a result, silver miner Fresnillo rising 9.45% to lead the blue chip resources companies, with gold miners Randgold Resources (up 7.45%) and FSTE 250-listed Centamin and Acacia Mining (up 6.5% and 5.6%) also firmly on the rise.

They were joined by Anglo American (9.19%), Antofagasta (8.78%), Glencore (8.66%), BHP Billiton (7.14%) and Rio Tinto (5.23%) at the upper echelons of the leaderboard.

Glencore was also boosted looking to sell its coal trains in Australia aiming to get approximately A$1.5 billion ($1.1 billion) out of the deal. Investors appear to be satisfied with the latter decision given that extra cash could only enhance efforts to solidify the company’s finances as it is going through a tough restructuring to reduce debt.

Central bank comments also weighed on the outlook for lenders. Barclays (down 2.7%), Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC (both down 2.1%) were all among the biggest fallers.

The KBW Bank Index in the US was down 0.11% to 64.29 points at 1623 GMT.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,179.51 0.07%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,826.29 0.44%
techMARK (TASX) 3,073.01 -0.74%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,002.00p 9.45%
Anglo American (AAL) 538.00p 9.19%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 540.00p 8.78%
Glencore (GLEN) 156.80p 8.66%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,635.00p 7.45%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 817.90p 7.14%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,030.50p 5.23%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 288.60p 4.30%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,880.00p 3.58%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,249.00p 3.11%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Shire Plc (SHP) 3,542.00p -3.09%
Barclays (BARC) 159.65p -2.65%
Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 274.70p -2.62%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,024.00p -2.26%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,483.00p -2.18%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 229.50p -2.05%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 447.85p -2.05%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,749.00p -2.03%
Carnival (CCL) 3,465.00p -1.90%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 915.50p -1.82%

FTSE 250 - Risers

OneSavings Bank (OSB) 305.80p 20.30%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,092.00p 10.22%
Evraz (EVR) 86.65p 7.31%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 97.55p 6.50%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 317.00p 6.09%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 272.30p 5.62%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,080.00p 5.37%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 171.10p 4.65%
Marshalls (MSLH) 343.20p 4.32%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 297.60p 4.31%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 513.50p -5.00%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 403.10p -3.50%
Lookers (LOOK) 161.60p -3.06%
AO World (AO.) 166.30p -2.92%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 265.30p -2.86%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 305.40p -2.80%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 373.20p -2.71%
Playtech (PTEC) 815.50p -2.28%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 1,680.00p -2.27%
Booker Group (BOK) 165.00p -2.25%