FTSE 100 movers: Miners rally; Next loses ground

London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.2% at 6,820.68 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Miners Antofagasta and Rio Tinto were high risers as metals prices advanced.

Oil giant BP also rallied after saying it expects to hit its $35bn net debt target during the first quarter of 2021 after faster-than-expected progress on its disposals programme. The company had forecast raising $4bn to $6bn from disposals and said proceeds would now be at the upper end of this range.

Investment manager M&G was trading up as it announced that Mike Evans has stepped down as chair with effect from 1 April after two and a half years to focus on his health. Evans took a temporary leave of absence from his duties at the beginning of the year due to a stress-related illness.

Retailer Next was in the red even as RBC Capital Markets lifted its price target on the stock and reiterated its ‘outperform’ rating.

"We are raising our high-end profit before tax forecasts by 1% and our EPS forecasts by 3-4% following Next's stronger-than-expected outlook and 4% in its PBT guidance for FY22," RBC said. "Next is showing strong online platform momentum, and we remain positive as it offers a strong online story at a more moderate valuation on than pureplay peers."

FTSE 100 - Risers

BP (BP.) 302.65p 4.43%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,767.50p 4.43%
SSE (SSE) 1,521.50p 4.43%
Entain (ENT) 1,582.50p 3.53%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,631.00p 3.16%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,540.50p 3.04%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,646.00p 3.03%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 112.08p 2.90%
Pearson (PSON) 792.40p 2.78%
BHP Group (BHP) 2,125.00p 2.76%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

BT Group (BT.A) 152.65p -2.43%
Next (NXT) 7,928.00p -2.29%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,326.00p -1.44%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,411.00p -1.32%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,835.00p -0.84%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,076.00p -0.76%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 496.40p -0.72%
Experian (EXPN) 2,528.00p -0.71%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 412.70p -0.22%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,408.00p -0.16%