Sector movers: General retailers lead losses

20th Sep 2016 18:31

(ShareCast News) - General retailers were the main drag on the market, as investors waited on policy decisions from rate-setters at the Bank of Japan and US Federal Reserve.Kingfisher was one of the weakest links in the retail chain on Tuesday, despite which the stock continued to trade near the top of the same trading range as over the last two years.In its latest set of interims, boss Veronique Laury referenced an uncertain economic climate in the UK, adding that she was cautious on the short-term outlook for the French market.Nonetheless, the company did post better-than-expected first-half pre-tax profits of £436m (consensus: £430m).Whitegoods retailer AO World and fashion outfits Next and Debenhams were also quite weak.Big Oil was also under pressure after officials at Libya's National Oil Corporation were cited as having said that production had increased to 450,000 barrels a day, which in turn weighed on crude oil futures.IG Group was another source of weakness, sending a gauge of financial services shares into the red, after the FTSE 250 spreadbetting firm said it performed well in the three months to the end of August in what was a challenging quarter, although revenue in the UK & Ireland weakened as markets became increasingly subdued after Brexit and revenue per client declined.TalkTalk shares got a boost as analysts at Redburn revived talk that the company might be a candidate for a reverse takeover.Such a link-up might allow an unlisted competitor to extract fatter margins from the internet provider's shrinking user base.That followed recent market-chatter that Telefonica or Hutchinson might be open to reversing their mobile networks into TalkTalk to gain its subscriber base and UK listing, the FT reported.Top performing sectors so far todayChemicals 12,061.67 +1.97%Tobacco 56,344.28 +1.06%Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,429.45 +1.00%Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,894.86 +0.93%Industrial Transportation 3,109.01 +0.79%Bottom performing sectors so far todayGeneral Retailers 2,584.05 -1.06%Oil & Gas Producers 6,951.64 -0.51%Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 14,861.67 -0.46%Financial Services 9,302.43 -0.44%Food Producers & Processors 8,095.66 -0.28%