Sector movers: Engineers pace gains

Weir Group was the biggest beneficiary as JP Morgan told clients it had been too cautious about the oil equipment manufacturer's near-term pricing power.

The broker upped its target price on the shares from 1,800p to 2,175p.

JP Morgan lifted its estimate for operating profits at Weir's Oil&Gas arm by 49% for 2017 and by 26% for 2018, on the back of the company's "aggressive" cost-cutting and expectations for higher top line growth.

A bigger than expected increase in the US rig count and stronger capex spend by US-based exploration and production firms meant sales at Weir were now seen growing 14% more than before in 2017 and 17% more in 2018.

Meanwhile, positive comments from Barclays were behind advances for IMI and Rotork.

Referencing its own employee cost analysis, it said the companies which were best positioned to benefit if and when top-line growth returned were: Spectris, Oxford Instruments, Rotork, Renishaw and Weir.

"Clearly our work cannot be viewed in isolation, and we have not made any changes to our favoured stocks in the sector, which remain Oxford Instruments, Spectris and IMI (all OW), but it does increase our interest in Rotork," Barclays said.

Among chemicals makers, it was all about Elementis, as the London-based speciality chemicals group said it was on track to grow full year operating profit across its three segments after a positive first quarter of 2017.

Banks were also higher, alongside an advance for their US-listed peers as government bonds yields continued to rise and ahead of updates out of Standard Chartered, Lloyds and RBS the next day.

Top performing sectors so far today

Industrial Engineering 11,959.20 +1.80%
Industrial Metals & Mining 2,280.00 +1.19%
Chemicals 12,809.15 +1.10%
Banks 4,207.30 +1.08%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 16,193.44 +0.90%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Food Producers & Processors 8,309.80 -1.59%
General Retailers 2,603.59 -0.98%
Electricity 8,257.57 -0.95%
Travel & Leisure 9,359.92 -0.64%
Insurance (non-life) 2,894.61 -0.47%