Sector movers: Financial stocks lifted by Man

1st Mar 2012 15:58

A 10 percent rise in Man Group's share price pushed the financial services sector to the top the pile today after the hedge fund manager reported a more generous dividend policy and a slow-down in the net outflow of funds.The group said funds under management (FUM) at the end of February clocked in at around $59.5bn, up from the end of 2011 figure of $58.4bn, on the back of good investment performance and a significant reduction in the rate of net outflows. Meanwhile, the firm announced that it will now pay out all of its adjusted management fee earnings per share each financial year in dividends to shareholders. As for the performance fees, net performance fee earnings will be added to available capital surpluses and distributed to shareholders over time, either through dividends or share repurchases, or both. Sector peers Hargreaves Lansdown, 3i Group and Schroders were also making decent gains today.Meanwhile, the industrial engineering sector was the worst performing category today, with Weir leading the fall a day after its full-year results.Weir hit its 2014 profit targets early, after seeing adjusted pre-tax profits rise by a third in 2011, helped by record performances in its Minerals and Oil and Gas divisions. However, despite the strong figures announced yesterday, the company continues to face headwinds in its battle to buy Australian mining equipment supplier Ludowici, with Danish rival FLSmidth increasing its offer price for the third time.Panmure Gordon said it kept the faith with the company when there was a run on the shares in January but it now says "Life is simpler elsewhere" and is no longer advising shareholders to buy the stock. The broker says that while the 2011 results beat expectations, the trends in margins, mix dynamics and the trajectory of its balance sheet were "less reassuring". Shares were down over 3% before the close today.Sector peers Optare, Clean Air Power, TEG Group and Fenner were also in the red today, with the industrial engineering stocks falling by an average 1.01%.BCTop performing sectors so far todayFinancial Services 5,148.65 +2.83%Personal Goods 22,252.00 +1.96%Health Care Equipment & Services 3,550.29 +1.76%Real Estate Investment Trusts 1,901.54 +1.76%Fixed Line Telecommunications 2,486.24 +1.69%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Engineering 7,987.81 -1.01%Industrial Metals & Mining 4,567.49 -0.83%Household Goods & Home Construction 7,079.56 -0.28%General Retailers 1,708.18 -0.17%Technology Hardware & Equipment 755.09 -0.10%