Sector movers: Defensive electricity stocks perform well in market sell-off

13th Nov 2013 15:28

Electricity was the only sector in positive territory on Wednesday as the category benefitted from its defensive characteristics amidst a sell-off across equity markets.Markets on the whole were trading firmly lower, with the FTSE 100 registering as much as triple-digit losses in afternoon trade, as investors reacted to a more-hawkish-than-expected Inflation Report from the Bank of England (BoE) released this morning.In its quarterly statement, the BoE said that the 7% threshold for the unemployment rate - at which it will begin to re-assess current monetary policy - could be breached a year earlier than previously planned.Meanwhile, markets were also reacting to an underwhelming Communist Party meeting in China which lacked certain details on reforms.These factors prompted a reduction in risk appetite across markets today with mining and banking stocks among the worst performers as investors adopted a cautious approach.On the upside were electricity stocks with Centrica, United Utilities and Drax registering decent gains.Shares in Drax, the electrical power generation company, received a boost after it revealed full-year underlying earnings would be "materially ahead" of current market consensus forecasts.The group said it had benefited from good trading conditions and a solid operating performance from its coal generating units. It also reported an encouraging performance by its first unit that was converted to burn biomass in place of coal.In addition, the commissioning of its new biomass delivery, storage and distribution systems is progressing very well, it said.Top performing sectors so far todayElectricity 9,047.09 +0.21%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 1,409.88 -3.63%Forestry & Paper 10,889.84 -3.25%Household Goods & Home Construction 10,674.23 -2.35%Media 6,216.50 -2.17%Banks 4,827.07 -2.09%BC