Sector movers: Engineers fall over Weir

7th Nov 2011 15:52

A spot of old-fashioned Scottish realism seems to be dragging down the share price of Glasgow based engineering giant, Weir Wroup, and with it the industrial engineering sector.As was the case with its August trading update, the numbers looks all right but the company has been talking down its own prospects. Revenues in the third quarter grew more strongly than the first half of the year and also on a like for like basis against the same period of 2010. However, referring to its oil and gas business, Weir warns "downstream market conditions remain challenging". As for the Power and Industrial arm, "overall market conditions remain mixed with continuing delays in nuclear projects and largely weak general industrial markets".Defensive stocks were back in fashion today, with power providers SSE and Drax Group attracting the attention of risk-averse investors, and pushng up the electricity sector.SSE is due to declare results later this week. Broker Charles Stanley expects the interim figures to be weak, but the second half should see a recovery. Charles Stanley expects SSE to declare pre-tax profit of £325m, down from £386m at the interim stage last year.The all-important dividend is expected to be bumped up to 24p from 22.3p at the interim stage last year.Top performing sectors so far todayElectricity 8,432.78 +1.41%Gas, Water & Multiutilities 4,732.67 +1.30%Forestry & Paper 5,046.38 +0.64%Financial Services 4,698.66 +0.52%General Retailers 1,593.97 +0.23%Bottom performing sectors so far todayTechnology Hardware & Equipment 746.85 -3.49%Automobiles & Parts 4,360.49 -2.00%Industrial Engineering 6,808.88 -2.00%Industrial Metals & Mining 4,424.97 -1.77%General Industrials 2,660.41 -1.72%