FTSE 100 movers: Miners climb, Astra and Tui drop

The FTSE 100 finished 0.6% higher at 7,279.19 on Friday, led by miners Antofagasta and Anglo American.

The mining sector was given a boost by positive reports on US-China trade talks, with senior representatives from Washintgon saying that talks had been "constructive". All of the FTSE 350 mining sector was in the green apart from one gold miner.

Fallers were more noticeable, however, with AstraZeneca bottom of the blue chip list as it drummed up £2.69bn from placing 44.4m new shares with institutional investors at a price of £60.50 per share to fund a new cancer drug collaboration with Japan's Daiichi Sankyo and repay some of its bonds. The collaboration is for a novel antibody-drug conjugate, trastuzumab deruxtecan, which is hoped will treat breast and other cancers.

JP Morgan analysts saw the Daiichi asset "as having significant potential, and though the returns may be back-end weighted", seeing the collaboration as a "significant positive" to drive earning accretion from 2020 onward.

"However, we are more mixed on the equity raise, firstly because the fact that Astra are raising more than they need for the Daiichi deal speaks to the strain that the company’s balance sheet is already under, and the fact that this strain isn’t going to be resolved organically. Secondly, because although the potential for an equity funded deal had been discussed at some length over the last year... we believe investors had got more comfortable that such a deal wasn’t going to take place."

Tui was also trading sharply lower after the Anglo-German tour operator said that the grounding of the 737 MAX Boeing aircraft in its fleet would subtract €200-€300m from its full-year operating profits, depending on whether the jets would be back in the air by mid-July or September. In the meantime, the tour operator was scrambling to rectify the situation, utilising spare jets, renewing expiring leases and leasing additional aircraft.

Housebuilders, including Berkeley Group and Taylor Wimpey, and utilities were sold off amid worries about Brexit and the potential for a general election after the government lost another Brexit vote.

Internationally focused share were benefiting more.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,279.19 0.62%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 966.00p 3.60%
CRH (CRH) 2,375.00p 3.49%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,053.50p 3.08%
BAE Systems (BA.) 482.40p 2.86%
Schroders (SDR) 2,710.00p 2.85%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 335.90p 2.63%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,150.00p 2.58%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,435.00p 2.35%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 511.50p 2.34%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,865.50p 2.30%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 6,135.00p -5.56%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 737.20p -4.23%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,692.00p -1.78%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 175.45p -1.52%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,142.00p -1.35%
SSE (SSE) 1,187.00p -1.33%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,976.00p -1.20%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 814.40p -1.19%
DCC (DCC) 6,655.00p -0.82%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 521.60p -0.80%