LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Miners were pummelled at the end of the week as the US dollar snapped higher on the back of an unexpectedly strong reading on the US jobs market for June, which in turn pushed commodity prices lower.
According to the US Department of Labor, non-farm payrolls in America jumped by 224,000 in June, racing past the median 158,000 forecast from economists on the Street.

In response, as of 1609 BST the US dollar spot index sprang higher by 0.65% to 97.3990 and copper futures for delivery in September on COMEX were giving back 0.99% to $2.6565 a pound.

Precious metals were getting whacked alongside, with August gold on COMEX down by 1.7% to $1,396.70/oz..

Iron ore futures were also under intense pressure, even if after having notched up five-year highs the previous Monday, falling by as much as 6.2% to $107.2 per tonne in trading on the Singapore Exchange overnight.

Weighing on Electronic and Electrical equipment names meanwhile was a double downgrade out of analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch on precision instrumentation maker Spectris to 'underperform'.

Going the other way, Oil Equipment and Services were wanted after analysts at Berenberg upgraded their recommendation on stock of Wood Group from 'hold' to 'buy', marking up their target price in the process, from 560.0p to 590.0p.

Grocers's shares were also in demand, with those of Sainsbury's boosted by news that shareholders had backed the re-election of its boss, Mike Coupe.

Top performing sectors so far today

Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 9,961.88 +1.48%

Food & Drug Retailers 3,986.28 +1.05%

Mobile Telecommunications 3,053.94 +0.92%

Tobacco 32,776.58 +0.77%

General Retailers 2,101.22 +0.69%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Industrial Metals & Mining 5,923.63 -3.94%

Electronic & Electrical Equipment 8,157.00 -3.87%

Mining 19,984.19 -3.14%

Chemicals 13,546.87 -2.47%

Forestry & Paper 20,105.89 -1.95%

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