Sector movers: Personal goods, miners pace gains

(Sharecast News) - Personal Goods and Industrial Metals and Mining companies paced gains at the start of the week as the risk on attitude that has prevailed year-to-date continued to pervade markets. Likely helping to feed those gains were the expectations of some equity strategists that policy support in China would likely help to prop up sentiment towards that country's equities.

Nevertheless, those same strategists had expressed a degree of skepticism about the staying power of any such gains.

Not surprisingly perhaps, the flip-side to the above was the selling in Big Pharma, a key defensive sector, which exerted the main drag on the FTSE 350 on Monday.

GSK slipped 2.02% despite confirming the US FDA had granted fast track designation for its investigational drug, bepirovirsen, aimed at treating chronic hepatitis B.

Worth noting, the company's shares had enjoyed a sharp run-up over the preceding fortnight.

AstraZeneca shares came off by a similar amount after analysts at Barclays, BMO, Stifel and UBS all lowered their target price on the drug giant.

Limiting gains as well, Investors were holding their cards close to their chests ahead of the release of key U.S. inflation data due out the next day.

Top performing sectors so far today

Personal Goods 18,735.87 +4.80%

Precious Metals and Mining 8,008.82 +2.55%

Non-life Insurance 3,323.28 +1.58%

Industrial Metals & Mining 6,037.65 +1.48%

Real Estate Investment & Services 2,232.78 +1.37%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 19,543.91 -2.18%

Retailers 3,859.38 -1.21%

Aerospace and Defence 9,217.73 -0.45%

Beverages 22,698.84 -0.18%

Media 11,740.91 -0.14%