FTSE 100 movers: Meggitt surges on merger mumbles, Carney chat hits housebuilders

London markets edged lower on Tuesday, as losses from housebuilders, engineers and financials eclipsed gains made by industrial metals.

As of 14:00 BST, the FTSE 100 was trading 0.2% lower at 6,727.

Shares in defence and aerospace engineer Meggitt rose following a report in the Financial Times that a merger with Cobham might be on the cards. Atif Latif, director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers, said he sees the rationale of a tie-up between the two as a defence play.

AstraZeneca gained as its Iressa drug, which is used in the treatment of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Iressa is already approved in 91 countries for the treatment of adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic epidermal growth factor receptor mutation-positive NSCLC, which is the most common type of lung cancer.

Sky surged as analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded their rating on the stock from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’ and raised estimates for 2017 by 20% more than the wider consensus. In a note to clients, Deutsche Bank said the European satellite TV giant was the best positioned in Europe to capitalise on growth areas related to online video.

Meanwhile ITV was under the cosh in early trading after Deutsche Bank downgraded the stock to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’. “We find the upside case of retransmission fees, Liberty takeout and cash returns/dividends unconvincing,” said the bank.

This seemed to outweigh a note from Morgan Stanley on the media sector that picked out ITV as one of its favoured stocks, while also downgrading Pearson to 'equal weight' from 'overweight'. Pearson's shares fell around 1.8% by mid afternoon.

Shares in housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey, Barratt Developments and Persimmon were all knocked lower as Mark Carney told the Treasury Select Committee that the bank rate may be headed higher a little bit sooner than markets anticipated.

Risers
Sky (SKY) 1,115.00p +3.43%
Meggitt (MGGT) 480.80p +2.19%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 180.10p +1.18%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 265.40p +0.87%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 1,094.00p +0.83%
Glencore (GLEN) 252.40p +0.80%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,903.00p +0.76%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 348.30p +0.66%
Tesco (TSCO) 213.85p +0.64%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,639.00p +0.61%

Fallers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 185.40p -3.39%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,958.00p -2.78%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 624.00p -2.73%
GKN (GKN) 317.10p -2.28%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,066.00p -1.93%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,595.00p -1.73%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 402.50p -1.61%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,005.00p -1.48%
Hammerson (HMSO) 652.50p -1.44%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 540.00p -1.37%