Sector movers: Retailers on the rise

12th Apr 2010 11:29

Takeover chatter and upbeat broker coverage is lifting retail stocks.Talk that Asda, the UK supermarket group owned by the US retail giant Wal-Mart, has Home Retail Group in its sights has lifted the Argos and Homebase owner. Supermarket Sainsbury's is higher after a double upgrade from BofA Merrill Lynch to 'buy' from 'underperform'. The broker is impressed with the way the supermarket has moved into the non-food arena.Industrial metals and mining stocks are among the fallers. Ukrainian iron ore producer Ferrexpo and Finnish nickel and zinc miner Talvivaara are suffering.Top performing sectors so far todayGeneral Retailers 1,761.80 +1.12%Food & Drug Retailers 5,003.31 +0.75%Software & Computer Services 683.25 +0.74%Construction & Materials 3,803.26 +0.73%Financial Services 5,297.90 +0.60%Bottom performing sectors so far todayForestry & Paper 4,954.82 -1.08%Technology Hardware & Equipment 429.07 -1.06%Automobiles & Parts 3,270.95 -0.92%Industrial Metals & Mining 7,079.78 -0.54%General Industrials 2,570.69 -0.46%