FTSE 100 movers: Centrica, Barclays rally on results; BAE drops

London's FTSE 100 was down 1% to 7,206.71 in afternoon trade on Thursday as investors waded through a deluge of earnings and digested a downward revision to fourth-quarter UK GDP.

British Gas owner Centrica was the standout gainer despite reporting a 17% drop in full-year adjusted operating profits, as investors welcomed a steady dividend, an increase to the cost efficiency programme and signs that management will be more focused on turning around the overall performance. The company also said that it was cutting 4,000 jobs by 2020.

Barclays was a high riser as it declared its intention to more than double dividend payouts in 2018 to 6.5p per share after lower costs helped lift profits last year. Peer RBS was in the black ahead of its annual results on Friday.

IAG and Pearson were also trading higher ahead of results on Friday.

RSA Insurance gained as it posted a jump in full-year profit and bumped up its dividend as a strong performance in Scandinavia, Canada, the Middle East and Ireland helped to offset a poor showing the UK.

On the downside, BAE Systems fell as investors focused on the fact that it expects earnings to be flat this year, rather than the jump in 2017 earnings.

British American Tobacco retreated even as it reported on what it claimed was a record year, with its "transformational" acquisition of Reynolds American leading to a 37.6% surge in revenue to £20.29bn. Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said investors were likely focused on the continued decline in cigarette sales in most countries.

Anglo American was down even as it reported a 45% jump in full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation thanks to higher commodity and copper prices. The miner missed underlying earnings expectations by 3 cents at $2.57 per share.

Imperial Brands and HSBC were weaker as their stock went ex-dividend.

Risers

Centrica (CNA) 140.00p 5.90%
Barclays (BARC) 212.15p 4.97%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 632.00p 3.10%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,446.00p 1.35%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 280.20p 1.01%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 622.40p 0.91%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,912.00p 0.79%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,719.50p 0.20%
Pearson (PSON) 702.80p 0.20%
Evraz (EVR) 428.30p 0.16%

Fallers

BAE Systems (BA.) 578.60p -3.79%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,299.00p -3.39%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,579.50p -3.24%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 726.80p -2.74%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 552.60p -2.61%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,878.00p -2.52%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,752.60p -2.45%
ITV (ITV) 168.05p -2.44%
G4S (GFS) 256.40p -2.44%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,915.00p -1.94%