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Sector Movers: Real estate and media stocks lead trading, FTSE stays above 7,000
LONDON (ShareCast) - The trading day belonged to real estate stocks with the FTSE 100 maintaining its position above the historic 7,000 mark on Tuesday. Land Securities (LSE: LAND.L - news) saw its stock up by 1.25% during mid-afternoon trading after a decision to sell its 95% stake in the Times Square office building near St Paul's Cathedral, to private equity group Blackstone (NYSE: BX - news) for £268.4m was made public.
The contract will reach completion in July and encompasses an office building currently let to six office tenants including Bank of New York Mellon and law firm Dechert until 2023. The positivity spread to the wider Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) segment as Great Portland Estate (up 1.94%), British Land (LSE: BLND.L - news) (up 1.21%) and Big Yellow Group (up 0.61%) all traded buoyantly.
Overall, at 16:10 on Tuesday REITs were up 44.22 points or 1.3% to 3,455.40. Additionally, Real Estate Investment & Service sub-segment also had a positive trading day up 29.30 points or 1% to 3,043.09.
Away from real estate, the media sector posted a rise of 76.25 points or 1% to 7682 points. Bloomsbury (up 2.82%), Centaur (up 2.05%), Pearson (up 1.27%) and Informa (up 0.61%) were the media stock picks of the day. Elsewhere, the life insurance sector posted a strong performance as well led by Standard Life (LSE: SL.L - news) (up 1.61%) and Aviva (up 1.59%).
On the flip-side, mining (down 1.27%) and foods (down 1.67%) were the worst performing sectors. In case of the latter, the decline was exasperated by Primark owner Associated British Foods (LSE: ABF.L - news) , which fell by 2.42% following a downgrade by Swiss bank Credit Suisse (LSE: 0QP5.L - news) .
Although the bank retained it's 'outperform' rating and price target of 3,250p on the stock, ongoing weakness of the euro, as the European Central Bank launches its stimulus programme, meant AB Foods' earnings forecasts were revised down by 3% this year and 8% next year.
Top 5 sectors: Automobiles & Parts 8,699.94 +112.22 1.31% Real Estate Investment Trusts 3,454.43 +43.25 1.27% Media 7,682.56 +76.24 1.00% Life Insurance 8,936.04 +87.16 0.99% Real Estate Investment & Services 3,043.09 +29.30 +0.97%
