Strong gains for steel giant EVRAZ helped push the industrial metals and mining sector to the top of the pile on Friday.

Shares in EVRAZ were up 4.39% at 304.2p in afternoon trade despite the company reporting that steel production fell 6.0% from the third to the fourth quarter mainly due to the scheduled maintenance at its ZSMK mill in the Siberia region.

The temporary suspension of work at EVRAZ Vitkovice's steel shop in the Czech Republic also contributed to the decrease in crude steel output, the company said.

Berkeley Mineral Resources, Ferrexpo, London Mining and Bellzone Mining were also registering impressive performances this afternoon.

Stocks being given a lift by comments from Credit Suisse, which said that the cycle in the European steel sector is now recovering.

The broker said: "Confidence appears to be returning as the recovery in the financial equities suggested to us could be the case. Anecdotes we hear suggest that the demand outlook (non-res in the US, general demand in EU) could be better than the market believes."

Meanwhile, the wider mining sector was in demand on Friday after better-than-expected data from China boosted the outlook for demand.

China's economic growth seems to have accelerated for the first time in two years towards the end of 2012 thanks in part to the stimulus measures implemented by the government.

Chinese gross domestic product grew 7.9% year-on-year in the last three months of 2012, ahead of the 7.8% expected by the consensus.



Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 3,119.13 +3.82%
Electronic & Electrical Equipment 3,862.11 +3.33%
Chemicals 8,874.96 +1.41%
Industrial Transportation 2,441.72 +1.41%
Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution 25,345.18 +1.24%

Bottom performing sectors so far today
Forestry & Paper 7,696.14 -0.97%
General Retailers 1,997.67 -0.44%
Life Insurance 5,312.22 -0.28%
Health Care Equipment & Services 3,957.75 -0.15%
Real Estate Investment & Services 1,931.84 -0.09%

BC

Related share prices
Berkeley Mineral Resources (BMR) share price
Ferrexpo (FXPO) share price
London Mining (LOND) share price
Bellzone Mining (BZM) share price
Evraz (EVR) share price