Sector movers: Domestic focused shares pace gains

The news set off an immediate bounce in cable, which was 1.07% higher to 1.2434 as of 1540 which fed through into sectors such as general retailers and REITs.

Yet there were also company and sector-specific news-flow to take into account.

Analysts Geoff Ruddell and Amy Curry at Morgan Stanley upgraded their recommendation on shares of Dixons Carphone from 'underweight' to 'equal-weight' following the de-rating in the stock price to what it considers "much more appropriate levels".

Nevertheless, they admitted that the reason for the same had been Brexit and not the longer-term structural pressures on its mobile business which it had envisaged.

In parallel, Berenberg nudged its target for shares of Just Eat from 600p to 620p.

Life insurers were also higher, bouncing alongside yields on longer-dated Gilts.

Investors in Tate&Lyle were rewarded after the company released better-than-expected first-half profits before tax of £140.0m (consensus: £131.0m).

In reported terms, PBT was up by an even bigger 37% thanks to an FX tailwind.

To take note of, in relation to steel-maker Evraz, market commentary highlighted a report from Goldman Sachs linking recent strength in iron ore prices to the weak Chinese yuan.

Miners were lower amid widespread price weakness in the metals space, with three-month copper futures flat on the LME at $4,920.00 per metric tonne as of 1610, while similarly-dated zinc was the worst performer, losing 1.6% to $2,426 a metric tonne.

Profit-taking among precious metals also weighed on the PGM miners, with Centamin being a notable exception after Egypt shifted towards a more flexible exchange rate regime.

Top performing sectors so far today
General Retailers 2,584.64 +2.27%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,786.13 +2.06%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,384.84 +1.79%
Life Insurance 6,898.70 +1.22%
Food Producers & Processors 7,893.36 +1.04%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,906.71 -5.10%
Chemicals 12,246.37 -2.26%
Beverages 16,504.71 -2.25%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 915.19 -2.06%
Mining 13,686.15 -1.67%