Sector Movers: Oil and gas producers rides BP wave

29th Oct 2013 15:21

The Oil & Gas Producers sector spurted highest on Tuesday on the back of the gushing reception for BP's third quarter results, rising 2.3 per cent.Investors appreciated that the oil giant said, after selling $38bn of assets so far to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, it will sell a further $10bn of assets by the end of 2015 and give most of the proceeds to shareholders most likely via share buybacks.Sliding like a lead weight, the Industrial Metals & Mining sector was the worst performer as the close approached, even though coper, aluminium and zinc prices all gained. Notably, the International Monetary Fund released data showing that Russian gold reserves fell in September, something that hadn't happened for a year, pushing the gold price down.Furthermore, global exploration budgets for non-ferrous metals are estimated to have fallen 29% this year to $15.2bn, according to broker Investec. The broker cited data collated by MiningNews that the exploration budgets of mining majors fell 24% this year and that of mining juniors fell 39% over 2012, dropping their share of the overall total to 34% from the 2007 high of 55%. Moreover, Tata Steel, Europe's second-largest steel producer, said a prolonged downturn in demand for steel had led it to decide to cut around 500 jobs in a restructure of its British business.Top performing sectors so far todayOil & Gas Producers 8,143.56 +2.33%Fixed Line Telecommunications 4,222.98 +1.73%Technology Hardware & Equipment 1,156.87 +1.18%Industrial Transportation 3,313.25 +1.12%Food Producers & Processors 7,207.08 +1.10%Bottom performing sectors so far todayIndustrial Metals & Mining 1,502.26 -1.54%Automobiles & Parts 8,463.80 -0.58%Electronic & Electrical Equipment 4,018.89 -0.30%Tobacco 38,042.85 -0.18%Beverages 14,966.66 -0.13%OH