Sector movers: BT, Smurfit Kappa move higher after hiking prices

20th Jan 2017 15:53

(ShareCast News) - Cyclicals led gains, spearheaded by oil service and general industrial issues, alongside an advance in stock of BT Group after the UK telecoms incumbent let it be known it would be raising prices for its broadband and landline services.AMEC Foster and Petrofac were up as crude oil futures rebounded from recent losses after data from the US Department of Energy released on 19 January revealed a drop in US oil stockpiles at Cushing, Oklahoma were benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude is priced.Smurfit Kappa topped the leaderboard for the Footsie after the paper and cardboard packaging company said it will hike the price of recycled containerboard by €60 a tonne.Moving lower, Evraz was impacted by a dip in Chinese steel rebar futures from $499.9 a tonne to $499.5 in overnight trading as the US affirmed findings of steel plate dumping by Beijing.Food & drug retailers were also sent packing after Exane BNP downgraded its recommendations on shares of Tesco and Sainsbury.The bank cut Tesco to 'underperform' from 'neutral' and pushed the target price down to 175p from 200p pointing to a high risk of de-rating given a building risk that inflation isn't fully passed through to the shopper, a tougher industry volume outlook and nothing in its recent consumer survey to prove volume growth is a given.It cut Sainsbury to 'neutral' from 'outperform', keeping the price target at 255p."With our target price now a little below the current share price and a building risk cost inflation isn't passed through to the shopper smoothly, we cut our rating," it said.AstraZeneca's shares declined after US sector peer Bristol Myers Squibb suffered a setback in one of its immunotherapy lung cancer drug treatments.Top performing sectors so far todayOil Equipment, Services & Distribution 16,706.07 +2.50%Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,394.55 +2.21%Forestry & Paper 19,280.73 +1.47%Construction & Materials 6,813.97 +1.23%General Industrials 5,911.18 +1.07%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 2,221.06 -2.23%Food & Drug Retailers 3,072.41 -1.68%Food Producers & Processors 7,573.09 -1.66%Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 13,133.51 -1.56%General Retailers 2,451.23 -1.06%