LONDON (ShareCast) - Tobacco companies are going well after Imperial Tobacco said trading is in line with expectations for the year to September 30.

“Our business fundamentals are excellent and our resilience in times of turbulent economic conditions is well known,” said boss of the Lambert & Butler firm Gareth Davis.

British American, the company behind Lucky Strike and Benson and Hedges cigarettes, also advances.

Weak metal prices are hurting mining companies. Copper fell by 3.2% yesterday. It won back about 0.4% today, but miners are still in the red. Among the fallers is India-focused Vedanta, which has abandoned plans for a corporate restructuring barely two weeks after first announcing the proposals.

Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Kazakhmys are also in the red.

Top performing sectors so far today
Forestry & Paper 2,870.57 +2.80%
Industrial Metals 4,079.99 +2.44%
Tobacco 22,712.26 +2.06%
Electricity 7,848.96 +1.92%
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,361.95 +1.69%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Mining 17,393.85 -2.62%
Automobiles & Parts 3,459.84 -1.79%
Life Insurance 3,978.81 -1.54%
Industrial Transportation 2,030.08 -1.27%
Travel & Leisure 4,030.73 -1.04%

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