Sector movers: Precious metals miners pace gains

(Sharecast News) - Miners spearheaded gains at the start of the week as the US dollar softened a tad after the rescue of troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse at the weekend. Critically, assurances from the Bank of England and European Central Bank that holders of AT1 bank debt or so-called 'bail-in' bonds would only incur losses if equity holders were first wiped out - as opposed to what occurred in Switzerland - allowed risk sentiment to stabilise following the bailout.

Steadier financial markets were considered to be a prerequisite if there was to be any chance that the US central bank would go ahead and hike official short-term interest rates when it met later in the week.

"The big miners dominate the London leaderboard today, as the dollar drops back on expectations of a more dovish Fed on Wednesday," said IG chief market analyst Chris Beauchamp.

"This is still the big unknown, but there is good reason to think that the Fed will look to rein in its hawks following last week's turmoil. Should the hawks win out, then we can expect more fireworks."

As of 1633 GMT, Fed funds futures had recovered a bit and where pricing in 73.1% odds of a 25bp hike in two days' time.

Nonetheless, come summer and the Fed was seen shifting into rate cutting mode.

Front-dated gold futures were conspicuous throughout the session, adding 0.48% to $1,999.80/oz, having earlier traded within a whisker of their 52-week highs at $2,045/oz..

COMEX copper for May delivery meanwhile was ahead by 1.22% to $3.94 a pound.

Commenting on the price action in copper, analysts at SP Angel were pointing out how yangshan copper premiums to the LME - an indicator of Chinese import demand - had doubled to near three-month highs.

They also noted commentary from analysts according to whom Chinese copper demand was rebounding on the back of rising housing completions in January and February.

Top performing sectors so far today

Precious Metals and Mining 10,662.09 +3.70%

Industrial Metals & Mining 6,721.76 +3.27%

Telecommunications Service Providers 2,387.20 +2.09%

Aerospace and Defence 5,939.88 +1.79%

Construction & Materials 8,127.10 +1.79%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts 1,643.76 -1.07%

Banks 3,290.69 -0.69%

Closed End Investments 10,845.81 -0.45%

Real Estate Investment & Services 2,184.65 -0.42%

Medical Equipment and Services 10,646.13 -0.33%