Sector movers: Miners, US election-related plays lead gains

9th Nov 2016 15:17

(ShareCast News) - Steel and mining stocks led gains for another session, amid widespread gains for most base metals and coal, helped by an initial bout of weakness in the US dollar.As of 1650 GMT, the US dollar was trading higher by 0.47% to 98.32 points after having earlier hit an intra-day low at 95.92.Construction, defence and pharma stocks were close behind, with US-exposed CRH gaining the most among the first group.In a research note issued in the afternoon strategists at Credit Suisse pointed out the potential positives of a Trump presidency, telling clients they remained 'overweight' on those two sectors especially and explicitly mentioning CRH.Strategist Andrew Garthwaite and his team cut their mid-2017 target for the S&P 500 - perhaps the most widely-followed US equity benchmark - from 2,300 to 2,200.They highlighted how most of Trump's most "troubling" policies (such as on immigration and protectionism) are likely to be toned down while other policies can be seen as "positive for equities", including more fiscal spending and a lower corporate tax rate."In a worst-case scenario (i.e. if Trump were to implement all of his proposed policies) the S&P 500 could fall 10% - but we assign a low probability to this," they said."Above all, equities should be supported by a high ERP (5.5% versus a warranted of 5.2%), earnings revisions are positive for the first time in 3 years and a number of factors could catalyse a bond to equity switch," they added.London-listed CRH and Wolseley were among their 'overweights' as infrastructure plays, along with Defence firms Thales and Raytheon. Pharma stocks are too cheap versus their bond relatives, the investment bank explained.Banks should do well too, while fossil energy plays might also benefit should a less friendly foreign policy towards Iran be adopted, according to Garthwaite.Top performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 2,202.17 +7.29%Construction & Materials 6,809.87 +6.83%Aerospace and Defence 4,738.17 +5.74%Mining 14,836.67 +5.07%Industrial Engineering 9,615.12 +3.98%Bottom performing sectors so far todayFood Producers & Processors 7,579.08 -3.97%Technology Hardware & Equipment 867.37 -3.55%Electricity 8,919.01 -3.24%Personal Goods 29,120.61 -2.40%Tobacco 51,937.56 -2.12%