Sector movers: Miners rise as China data boosts risk appetite

4th Nov 2013 15:23

Mining stocks were on the rise on Monday as upbeat data from economic powerhouse China increased risk appetite in global capital markets.Activity in China's services sector expanded at its fastest pace in the last year in October, reinforcing confidence that the world's largest economy is on a stable growth path. The non-manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) rose from 55.4 to 56.3 in last month, according to data reported by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). "Given the efforts of the Chinese government to steer the economy away from the export-led model to one focused more on services, this data is increasingly important, and very encouraging," said Market Analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari."If the services sector can pick up more and more of the slack here, it will go a long way to preventing a hard landing, which many fear could happen, while allowing the government to address its growing debt," he said.Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources were high risers today as gold prices rebounded from a two-week low. Bullion for December delivery was 0.6% higher at $1,321.10 in morning trade on the Comex in New York, following a 2.9% drop over the last week.Mining peers Rio Tinto, Vedanta, Antofagasta and Anglo American were also performing well on the FTSE 100 this afternoon.Top performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 1,490.84 +4.01%Construction & Materials 4,341.64 +2.54%Mining 17,061.86 +1.58%Banks 4,994.43 +1.48%Forestry & Paper 12,107.01 +1.44%Bottom performing sectors so far todayMobile Telecommunications 5,355.62 -0.94%Industrial Engineering 10,349.65 -0.91%Automobiles & Parts 8,585.38 -0.70%Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,138.15 -0.57%Industrial Transportation 3,348.27 -0.47%BC