LONDON (ShareCast) - With market sentiment still fragile following the heavy sell-off of the past two days, defensive sectors were thriving on Friday as investors refrained from taking risk ahead of the long weekend.

Concerns about a scaling back of stimulus in the US and a slowdown in China saw the FTSE 100 drop 2.1% on Thursday and a further 0.8% on Friday afternoon. The Euro Stocks 600 index is currently heading for its worst two-day performance in 10 months.

Given that cyclical sectors - such as banking and mining - had a big role to play in driving London's benchmark index to 13-year highs earlier this week, they bore the brunt of the selling given concerns about the economic outlook.

ENRC, RBS and HSBC were registering moderate losses before the close of trade.

Defensive categories, in contrast to riskier cyclicals, tend to hold up relatively well in times of economic difficulty. These sectors – such as utilities, real estate, pharmaceuticals and telecoms – offer services that people need in spite of the economic outlook.

As such, Shire, Severn Trent, Imperial Tobacco and Vodafone were among the best performers.


Top performing sectors so far today
General Industrials 3,988.26 +0.12%
Real Estate Investment & Services 2,450.41 +0.12%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 6,210.99 +0.06%
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology 11,665.07 +0.03%
Mobile Telecommunications 4,515.64 +0.02%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Personal Goods 23,267.85 -1.80%
Industrial Metals & Mining 1,646.56 -1.66%
Fixed Line Telecommunications 3,560.46 -1.56%
Banks 5,050.27 -1.36%
Financial Services 7,086.77 -1.35%

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