FTSE 100 movers: Barclays gains on results; Fresnillo loses its shine

London's FTSE 100 was up 0.6% at 6,998.70 in afternoon trade on Wednesday, recovering from heavy losses the day before.

Barclays was among the risers as its third-quarter underlying profits beat City estimates, helped by the corporate and investment banking arm outperforming US peers in the markets.

Pre-tax profit of £1.54bn for the quarter, excluding £105m of litigation and conduct charges, bested the City analyst consensus of £1.33bn. For the full year the market has pencilled in £5.7bn.

Budget airline easyJet flew higher as Deutsche Bank upgraded the European airlines sector to 'overweight' from 'underweight'. The bank noted that it has been the worst-performing sector this year, underperforming the market by 22% on a combination of weak euro area growth momentum and oil prices rising 16%.

DB's analysts project euro area PMI momentum to improve by early next year, helped by the reduced drag from euro strength and a favourable swing in the inventory cycle, with Brent crude oil to remain around $80 per barrel by end of the first quarter next year.

On the downside, Fresnillo dropped as the precious metals miner's third-quarter silver production missed estimates, but gold output was a beat.

Broadcaster ITV was on the back foot as Morgan Stanley cut its price target on the equalweight-rated stock to 190p from 210p.

"The combination in 2019 of UK economic uncertainty, poor ad momentum and the absence of the FIFA World Cup is a tough backdrop. We reduce 2019 NAR growth from -1% to -1.8%," it said.

HSBC Holdings was also weaker as RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock to 'underperform' from 'sector perform' and slashed the price target to 560p from 730p, highlighting elevated risk from China and a stretched valuation.

The bank pointed out that HSBC's direct exposure to China is 11% of profits, but this rises to 59% if we include indirect exposure from Hong Kong and Singapore, whose own economies are strongly correlated to Chinese growth, at 77% and 86%, respectively.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 819.40p 6.03%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 714.60p 4.84%
Evraz (EVR) 535.20p 4.65%
BT Group (BT.A) 249.80p 3.89%
Halma (HLMA) 1,277.00p 3.23%
Rightmove (RMV) 444.65p 3.19%
Barclays (BARC) 170.70p 2.98%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 473.85p 2.94%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,717.00p 2.78%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,164.00p 2.78%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Fresnillo (FRES) 957.80p -1.99%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,417.00p -1.79%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,488.00p -1.35%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,303.50p -0.99%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 864.50p -0.69%
ITV (ITV) 152.50p -0.49%
Sage Group (SGE) 532.60p -0.49%
3i Group (III) 840.20p -0.45%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,517.00p -0.28%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 605.70p -0.16%