Sector movers: Corporate and M&A news drives moves

(Sharecast News) - London stocks finished the session on a mixed note, although corporate results and news on the mergers and acquisitions front saw the top-flight index hit a fresh record high. That was despite a rebound in cable of 0.63% to 12148.

Oil&Gas continued to do well with investors continuing to display a liking for the likes of BP and Shell on the back of their latest results.

AstraZeneca meanwhile rebounded towards its record highs after beating analysts' estimates for its fourth quarter numbers.

Among lenders, StanChart was by far way the best performer following a Bloomberg report that officials at the Abu Dhabi bank were working under the radar on a possible bid once a cooling off period required by UK takeover rules elapses.

Worth noting, in recent weeks analysts had called attention to the valuation discounts on offer in BP and StanChart shares when compared with their sector peers.

Precious metals miners were at the bottom of the leaderboard, retreating alongside soft prices for the underlying ores that they mined.

That weakness came despite a dip in the US dollar on Thursday.

Tobacco also performed poorly, due to the drag from British American Tobacco as the company reported a 5% drop in full-year cigarette sales volumes.

It was a generally positive day for risk assets around the world with some analysts in the City pointing to better-than-expected corporate earnings in the US thus far in the reporting season for the risk on tone.

On Wednesday evening however it was reported that used vehicle prices in the US spiked in January.

While the result of unusually warm weather during the month, according to Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon Macroeconomics the figures pointed to upside risks for US core consumer prices in February or March.

Shepherdson also expected used vehicle prices to contribute to a 0.4% month-on-month rise in core CPI in January, although he conceded that the start of a drop in rent prices was a wild card.

In parallel, he was expecting more favourable weather to be reflected in activity data over the next few weeks before softening markedly in February.

Reflecting on what quite a few analysts believed was the difficult - when not impossible - balance between growth and inflation needed to sustain share prices, managers at Ruffer Investment Company told Quoted Data: "A benign outcome in 2023 depends on an almost impossible trinity - a short and shallow recession, a rapid decline in inflation and an aggressive Fed pivot.

"Not impossible but it is hard to see how all three can come to pass. And all three are needed if a favourable market environment is to return quickly."

Top performing sectors so far today

Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 21,357.83 +2.97%

Banks 3,907.71 +1.37%

Industrial Transportation 4,088.70 +1.31%

Investment Banking and Brokerage Services 12,508.79 +1.07%

Oil, Gas and Coal 8,796.06 +0.99%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Precious Metals and Mining 11,177.77 -2.25%

Tobacco 33,090.20 -2.05%

Travel & Leisure 7,334.62 -1.93%

Telecommunications Service Providers 2,349.40 -1.61%

Industrial Metals & Mining 7,892.51 -1.40%