Sector movers: Tesco leads cyclicals higher, pharma drags

Tesco shares accounted for the lion's share of the gains in that sector after Unilever said issues surrounding the supply of its leading brands including Marmite to the supermarket have been resolved.

The two companies were at loggerheads after Unilever said it wanted to raise its prices by about 10% to compensate for the plunge in the value of the pound.

Laird, one of tech-giant Apple's suppliers, edged higher as Samsung's troubles continued to pile up.

On Friday, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer said the recall of Galaxy Note 7 devices thus far had already seen $2.3bn go up in flames - costs, that is - and the additional losses in profit over the next six months is expected to take that figure to $5.3bn.

Drax buoyed electricity stocks as its shares continued to hold at their 200-day moving average despite the back-up in longer-term Gilt yields.

The construction sector was another top gainer, despite ONS data revealing a 1.5% month-on-month drop in the sector's output in August, a far worse outcome than the flat reading which had been expected.

Nevertheless, not all areas of the construction universe crumbled in August, with new private commercial work up by 1.5% month-on-month.

Risk of US Democrats taking both chambers of Congress rises

Pharma stocks were again the main drag.

The Stoxx 600 health care index had underperformed the wider market by 11% since early July, partly as investors rotated into cyclicals, Deutsche Bank said in a research note sent to clients.

The other main factor were the increasingly positive poll ratings for US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Clinton - who had vowed to fight for lower drug pricing - might be stymied by the Republican/controlled House of Representatives, but the odds that Democrats would sweep to victory in both the House and Senate had risen to 35% over the past days, the broker's FX strategists said, pointing to a poll from RealClearPolitics to back up their case.

Top performing sectors so far today
Food & Drug Retailers 3,021.07 +2.57%
Technology Hardware & Equipment 2,092.05 +2.11%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,295.55 +1.95%
Electricity 9,064.38 +1.60%
Construction & Materials 6,481.67 +1.56%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Personal Goods 31,245.57 -0.89%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 14,756.79 -0.36%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 5,374.66 -0.31%
Beverages 17,337.12 -0.29%
Tobacco 56,455.02 -0.07%