FTSE 100 movers: Gold miners shine as investors flock to safety; housebuilders drop

London's FTSE 100 was down 1.6% at 7,031.14 in afternoon trade on Thursday amid a global stock-market rout.

Housebuilders Barratt Developments, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon were on the back foot after the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed UK house sales expectations over the next 12 months have turned negative.

The survey also revealed that the balance of surveyors reporting that house prices have risen over the last three months fell to -2 in September from +1 in August, below consensus expectations of +2.

Barratt was also dented by the fact that its stock went ex-dividend.

Hargreaves Lansdown was in the red after it reported an uncertain market environment and weak investor sentiment in the three months since the start of July, with assets under administration growing 2.7%. In what was the first quarter of its financial year, the investment and pensions platform won £1.3bn of net new business, down 16% compared to the same period last year.

Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources bucked the trend, however, as investors piled into the safety of gold.

IG market analyst Joshua Mahony said: "The heavy US debt burden means that traders are unlikely to perceive the US dollar as a safe haven in the event that yields keep rising. Thus, we could be moving into a position where Gold comes back into favour after feeling relatively unloved throughout recent years."

Elsewhere, supermarket retailer Tesco was on the up despite its stock going ex-dividend.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 837.80p 8.50%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,530.00p 5.01%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,556.00p 1.59%
Tesco (TSCO) 219.50p 1.53%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,563.25p 1.31%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 771.40p 1.18%
BT Group (BT.A) 238.90p 0.80%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 248.30p 0.67%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,308.00p 0.61%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 153.84p 0.55%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Barratt Developments (BDEV) 495.00p -10.84%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,850.00p -5.03%
3i Group (III) 859.80p -3.67%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 159.50p -3.36%
Schroders (SDR) 2,909.00p -3.19%
Halma (HLMA) 1,227.00p -3.16%
Next (NXT) 5,332.00p -3.09%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 451.41p -3.01%
Evraz (EVR) 518.60p -2.92%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,200.00p -2.70%