Sector movers: Miners sold off as dollar gains on euro crisis

30th Jan 2012 14:50

The Eurozone crisis sparked a sell-off in the industrial metals and mining sector today, as ongoing talks in Greece and this afternoon's EU summit weighed on market sentiment.The absence of a debt-swap deal in Greece, the downgrade of five Eurozone nations, and a euro-era record high Portuguese 10-year bond yield saw investors shift away from the euro and into the dollar on Monday, making greenback-denominated commodities more expensive.Sector peers Evraz, Discovery Metals, First Quantum Minerals, Talvivaara Mining and Ferrexpo were suffering heavy losses in mid-afternoon trade.Meanwhile, the defensive categories seemed to be the only (relative) winners of the day, with pharmaceuticals, telecoms and utilities stocks registering modest gains as investors shifted away from riskier assets, such as banks and miners.Drug giants AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline were lifting the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology sector to the top of the pile, Vodafone boosted telecoms stocks, while International Power, National Grid, United Utilities and SSE sparked a rise in the electricity and gas, water and multiutilities sectors.BCTop performing sectors so far todayPharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 9,935.40 +0.30%Mobile Telecommunications 3,989.88 +0.27%Electricity 7,728.53 +0.15%Gas, Water & Multiutilities 4,595.85 +0.09%Health Care Equipment & Services 3,465.77 +0.04%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 4,850.95 -4.13%Banks 3,697.18 -3.26%Life Insurance 4,168.41 -3.00%General Industrials 2,861.02 -2.48%Construction & Materials 3,423.85 -2.38%