FTSE 100 movers: Hargreaves boosted by broker notes; gold miners fall
London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 6,850.41 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Polymetal were both lower as gold prices fell.
On the upside, investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown was sitting pretty at the top of the index on the back of bullish notes from Barclays and Shore Capital.
Barclays reiterated its ‘overweight’ rating on the shares. It said the de-rating of the stock was "excessive" as the market focuses to a too-great extent on the interest rate cycle effects on revenues at the expense of potential positive surprises that may emerge in activity and also from stronger markets.
Meanwhile, Shore Capital upgraded it to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’. It said that given the rise in markets in the fourth quarter, and the continued elevated retail share dealing that this catalysed, it has materially upgraded forecasts for the stock.
Barratt Developments rallied after saying it planned to restart dividends as it reported strong trading in the first half. Forward sales in the six months to the end of December rose 14.3% to 13,588 homes from a year earlier at a value of £3.2bn - up 19.4%. Peer Taylor Wimpey also rose.
Rentokil gained after saying that annual results would be slightly better than expectations but warning the outlook was uncertain because of uncertainty over one-off disinfection sales.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,656.00p 5.48%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 714.00p 3.63%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,461.00p 3.45%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,458.00p 3.15%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 8,946.00p 2.97%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 545.40p 2.71%
Avast (AVST) 548.50p 2.62%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 168.75p 2.30%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,505.00p 2.22%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 542.60p 2.11%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,202.50p -3.61%
BT Group (BT.A) 141.95p -3.34%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 241.90p -2.66%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 108.25p -2.57%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,781.50p -2.36%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 128.52p -2.01%
CRH (CRH) 3,438.00p -1.88%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 181.30p -1.44%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 403.50p -1.42%
Barclays (BARC) 153.96p -1.38%