FTSE 100 movers: Miners dominate, Barclays whipped

Miners and metals were prominent among the risers on Friday, with the sector being the top performer in Europe.

As well as higher copper prices, another factor boosting the sector was China's recent round of measures to stimulate its economy.

Analysts at Danske Bank pointed to a "big jump" in credit in China in January, telling clients it was a sign that Beijing's stimulus measures "kicking in with more force".

"The data added to optimism in the Chinese equity market, which rallied further this week, putting gains at close to 15% this year," analysts said.

Evraz, Glencore, Anglo American, BHP, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto were all in the top ten.

Pearson was in there too as the education group reported profits at the top end of guidance, despite underlying revenue falling 1%. The group, which also lifted the final dividend 8%, said it expects sales to stabilise this year and grow into 2020.

Analyst Sophie Lund-Yates at Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Pearson has been experiencing problems for a while - a trend towards cheaper study materials and digital resources has left the group in a tough spot. That means sales have been flat lining, so it’s come as a nice surprise to hear it expects performance to improve from here. Pearson has historically relied too heavily on cost savings to keep itself going - it should be applauded for squeezing out such savings, but at some point the juice has to run out and sales growth needs to takeover."

While there were problems with US higher education courseware, Pearson’s digital efforts are going well, she said, with hope being "pinned on these divisions growing fast enough to stem disappointing performance elsewhere”.

Barclays was the FTSE's biggest faller the day after the bank's results, when the shares finished almost flat after an early spike when the profit number beat analysts' estimates as its investment banking arm outperformed rivals.

On Friday the source of the sell-off was not entirely clear, with plenty of positive analyst reactions to go around. JP Morgan Cazenove maintained its 'outperform' rating, RBC Capital saw the positives but kept its rating at 'sector perform',

As it reiterated its 'buy', Berenberg: "Barclays continues to outperform peers in a difficult environment. Notably, its share of investment bank (IB) revenues has now risen for five consecutive quarters. Partly as a result, we believe the crica 5.5% return that the market discounts from Barclays’ IB is unwarranted."

With the bank meeting its cost saving target a year early, giving it "greater flexibility" to maintain or adjust investment, Berenberg reckons the 25% discount to UK banks "is too wide".

Shore Capital also saw the blue-branded bank as "unloved and undervalued", with management's target for the group to exceed 9% return on tangible equity in 2019 and 10% in 2020 as presenting "upside risk to consensus", while also liking the intention to maintain a progressive dividend policy and using share buy-backs to return surplus capital.

B&Q owner Kingfisher was down as the CBI's retail sector survey pointed to continued weakness in DIY retail.

GlaxoSmithKline started the day well into the red after a downgrade from UBS, where analysts predict the drug giant's shares will struggle to perform in the near-term due to nervousness around its ViiV HIV business.

With rising competition on ViiV and patient switching into other treatments becoming "a real problem", there is now investor concern over ViiV performance in 2019, UBS said, coming at the same time as questions over whether the pharma division can deliver.

But GSK came back as the day went on, helped by news that the Serious Fraud Office has closed its investigations into alleged bribery at the company.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,186.26 0.26%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,268.79 0.17%
techMARK (TASX) 3,515.00 0.28%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Evraz (EVR) 550.60p 3.61%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,706.50p 3.49%
Glencore (GLEN) 310.40p 3.29%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,050.00p 3.03%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 844.80p 2.70%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 173.75p 2.21%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,821.40p 1.90%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 946.16p 1.83%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,458.00p 1.50%
Pearson (PSON) 895.80p 1.40%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Barclays (BARC) 156.76p -2.50%
Kingfisher (KGF) 234.00p -2.09%
Tesco (TSCO) 222.90p -1.42%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,887.00p -1.37%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 891.80p -1.31%
BT Group (BT.A) 228.05p -1.23%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,209.50p -1.08%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 636.50p -1.01%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 288.20p -0.93%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,761.13p -0.89%