Sector movers: Renishaw boosts electronics

Precision engineer Renishaw is lifting the electronic and electrical equipment sector higher, after the group posted a sharp rise in half year pre-tax profit and upped its dividend following a surge in demand from Asia and metrology products. Pre-tax profit surged to £35.5m in the six months ended 31 December 2010 from £7.1m the same time a year earlier. Revenue increased to £129.3m during the period from £73.8m before.The electricity sector is performing poorly with Helius Energy among the fallers. The biomass-fuelled energy plants developer is lower despite yesterday's announcement that revealed a lower underlying loss in the year to September 2010.Stripping out earn-out adjustments, the loss fell from £1.82m to £1.26m. Higher finance income was the reason behind the lower loss.Top performing sectors so far todayElectronic & Electrical Equipment 2,892.18 +5.04%Technology Hardware & Equipment 720.45 +3.51%Industrial Engineering 6,647.77 +3.16%Automobiles & Parts 5,005.80 +3.08%Mining 26,660.13 +2.90%Bottom performing sectors so far todayAlternative Energy 3,814.77 -1.80%Electricity 7,386.23 -1.55%Aeronautics and Defence NULL 0.00%Alternative Investment Instruments NULL 0.00%Automotive and Parts NULL 0.00% Renishaw