Sector movers: Miners lead the way as copper prices rise

LONDON (ShareCast) - Mining stocks, including Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) and Rio Tinto (Xetra: 855018 - news) , led the way on Friday as copper prices rose on lower inventories and a weaker US dollar. Aluminium, nickel and zinc also rose to provide miners a boost. The market carried on from Thursday's rally, as weak Chinese manufacturing data lifted hopes of further stimulus measures.

Banks were also higher, as HSBC gained after the lender said it was considering moving its headquarters from the UK.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (LSE: HL.L - news) : "The big benefit to shareholders in it doing so would lie in the company paying less UK tax. It would only have to pay the banking levy on its UK operations, rather than its whole global business. "The rise in its stock price illustrates the effect the bank levy has on the value of the UK banking sector." Top performing sectors so far today Mining 14,806.42 +2.44% Construction & Materials 5,010.22 +2.39% Forestry & Paper 14,530.56 +2.04% Banks 4,577.24 +1.91% Mobile Telecommunications (BSE: MOBILTEL.BO - news) 5,318.08 +1.09% Bottom performing sectors so far today Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 18,854.03 -1.33% Industrial Engineering 9,006.82 -1.25% Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 14,033.50 -0.97% Oil & Gas Producers 7,575.98 -0.95% Life Insurance 8,281.13 -0.78%