Sector movers: Havens appeal as World Bank cuts growth forecast

13th Jun 2012 16:34

With concerns mounting once more over the Eurozone debt crisis ahead of this week-end's Greek General Election investors were happy to seek out the relative safety of utilities such as power providers SSE and Drax.SSE's appeal was underlined by Barclays, which suggested clients be overweight in the stock, having previously been neutral on the shares.The flight to safety was encouraged by the World Bank lowering its forecast for economic growth to 2.5% in 2012, from the 6.1% expansion last year and 7.4% growth in 2010. Industrial engineering stocks were out of favour in the wake of the World Bank's forecast, with conveyor belt maker Fenner among the hardest hit.Broker finnCap revisited its earnings forecasts for Fenner as the broker is now taking a more downbeat view on the impact of US coal activity on conveyor demand. The new forecasts factor in 5% growth for the group in 2013, down from its previous assumption of 10.5% growth, which feeds through to single digit percentage year-on-year growth in earnings per share (EPS). As a result, the broker has chopped its target price from 585p to 450p, while retaining its "buy" recommendation, as the shares have already taken a battering over the last month.Top performing sectors so far todayElectricity 8,704.50 +1.65%Industrial Transportation 2,325.64 +0.85%Food Producers & Processors 5,504.93 +0.77%Equity Investment Instruments 5,406.81 +0.62%Real Estate Investment & Services 1,572.20 +0.61%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 2,649.22 -4.29%Industrial Engineering 6,698.62 -2.56%Automobiles & Parts 4,227.22 -2.22%Personal Goods 20,697.42 -2.04%General Industrials 2,967.86 -1.66%