Sector Movers: Oilfield services and mining stock lead the UK market

LONDON (ShareCast) - Oilfield services and mining sectors emerged tops on Monday as the FTSE 100 lurked either side of the 7,000 mark, while tobacco stocks also staged a recovery run. However, the session belonged to oilfield services firms as the segment continued to figure in the top five since 18 March; the day Chancellor George Osborne cut the country's overall taxation on oil and gas exploration down from 60% to 50% in his budget.

Trading for the segment began on a positive note with BP announcing the award of £100m North Sea services contract to private equity owned Asco . Listed oilfield services companies Amec , Petrofac and Wood Group all traded in the green during the afternoon session.

However, shares in Weir Group were weighed down by a ratings cut at RBC Capital Markets, which said that the risk-reward for new investors is now balanced at engineering firm with a heavy presence in oil and gas services. The broker lowered its stance on Weir Group from 'top pick' to 'sector perform' and slashed its target price from 2,150p to 1,850p.

Close on the heels of oilfield services firms were mining stocks carrying forward their rally from Friday, helped in no small part by the mixed fortunes of gold miner Centamin , which saw a surge in its share price despite reporting lacklustre profits.

While Centamin's profits halved in 2014, as higher production was offset by increased output costs and lower commodity prices, the market reacted positively after the company's dividend equalled 30% of free cash-flow, at the top end of analysts forecasts.

Mining giants BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) , Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) , Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) and Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) also posted gains along with oil blue chips Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) and BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) . Overall, UK-listed mining and oil and gas stocks are holding up well despite a string of negative news in the global commodities sphere. Gold and iron ore, along with several industrial minerals are trading at cyclical lows, as is crude oil which is struggling to find a stable price floor.

Reversing the trend of a torrid few days of trading on the back of the UK government's proposals for plain cigarette packaging, tobacco stocks returned to positive territory.

British American Tobacco (LSE: BATS.L - news) was trading up 1.41% or 51.50p to 3,708.50p while Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT.L - news) was up 1.93% or 60p at 3.165.00p at 15:45 on Monday clawing back some of the ground lost in trading on Thursday and Friday.

On the other hand, quite a few sectors finished marginally in the red. Most notably, these included pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (down 1.26% or 184.63 points to 14,439.210), aerospace and defence (down 0.92% or 49.05 points to 5,272.86) and insurance (down 0.81% or 71.71 points to 8,824.83).

Top 5 sector performers: Oil Equipment, Service & Distribution 19,420.31 +433.88 2.29% Mining 14,604 +256.678 +1.79% Tobacco 43,811.33 +741.28 +1.72% Health Care Equipment & Services 6861.41 +56.36 +0.83% Oil & Gas Producers 7,216.45 +50.07 +0.70%