FTSE 100 movers: Fresnillo shines as silver surges; Pearson hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.8% at 6,460.39 in afternoon trade on Monday.

Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Polymetal surged to the top of index as silver prices jumped, targeted by Reddit retail traders.

Housebuilders were on the rise, with Barratt, Berkeley and Taylor Wimpey all higher.

CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson suggested housebuilders could be up on "optimism over the UK economy seeing an easing of restrictions sooner rather than later as the vaccine rollout hits a new milestone as the government announced that all care home residents had been offered a jab".

Elsewhere, JD Sports Fashion rallied after agreeing to buy DTLR Villa, a US sports retailer, for $495m (£360m), of which about $100m will be used to repay debt.

On the downside, investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown lost ground despite lifting its interim dividend and reporting a 10% rise in first-half profit.

Education publisher Pearson was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘sell’ from ‘buy’ at UBS.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 1,147.00p 16.14%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,691.50p 6.99%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 792.60p 6.10%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,206.00p 4.20%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 664.80p 4.07%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,511.50p 4.04%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,356.00p 3.99%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 152.25p 3.96%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,984.00p 3.43%
M&G (MNG) 181.65p 3.27%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,641.50p -3.92%
Pearson (PSON) 785.20p -3.37%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,328.80p -0.69%
British Land Company (BLND) 446.10p -0.58%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,265.00p -0.57%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 243.30p -0.45%
Diageo (DGE) 2,941.50p -0.25%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,652.50p -0.19%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 179.20p -0.14%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 142.85p -0.10%