What is a sector performer and why do financial advisers provide information on them to investors?

Question

What is a sector performer and why do financial advisers provide information on them to investors?

Answer 1

A key performer in a market sector...

   The most successful TV company in the country, which has the most viewers, and get s the most advertising revenue, the oil company with the most garages, doing the best trade.  

The car maker with the biggest sales in your country.

Investors want to know if things still look good to invest in them.  Has that TV company just got another big-name drama coming out for the next six months?  Has that oil company just got licences to drill on that new patch of coastline?

Has that car firm just launched a well-recieved new model, that they can hardly make quick enough?

Where's the smart money going?

Answer 2

A sector is a group of similar companies within one broad industry. It allows easier comparision when assessing individual performances. It is not much use comparing a bank from the financial services sector with a miner from the mining sector. Some sectors are cyclical and others are considered defensive e.g. food retailers (recession or no recession we gotta eat) Different sectors go in and out of fashion depending upon expectations of what the future holds and the investment groups all pile in like teenage fashion victims. Those companies doing best in terms of share performance compared with their industry peers are known as sector performers. When a company is a sector performer that is when the smart investor gets out while the crowd mentality piles in at the end of the wave. The wave of institutional money pushes up prices for a while as everyone is chasing the same stock. Its best to be in before they arrive as grabbing their coattails can lead to underperforming shareholdings. Financial advisers work for fees not for you despite what they might claim. If they were good they wouldn't be giving advice they would be employing it.