FTSE 100 movers: NMC Health rallies on Barclays note; Persimmon drops

London's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,127.87 in afternoon trade on Monday, off earlier highs as sterling was lifted by reports that Theresa May is heading to Strasbourg to meet with Jean-Claude Juncker to finalise some kind of Brexit deal.

UAE-based private healthcare operator NMC Health was the standout gainer as Barclays included the stock in its European Top Picks list, saying that management has demonstrated its ability to strike very attractive deals whilst not losing sight of the underlying business.

"They are executing on a robust strategy of moving up the specialty curve whilst cross-selling these specialties, and this will be the blueprint for expansion in Saudi Arabia, in our view. To this end, we expect NMC to significantly shake up the Saudi healthcare industry and we believe this is underappreciated by the market.

"Recent share price weakness provides an attractive entry point into what we believe is a multi-year growth story at a company with a track record of beating and raising guidance."

Asset manager Standard Life Aberdeen was also on Barclays' top picks list.

"We rate the stock 'overweight' due to its discounted valuation, potential for continuing capital return from sales of stakes in Indian JVs and M&A earnings accretion." Barclays added the stock's valuation looks increasingly inexpensive.

Vodafone was up almost 2% as it said it planned to make 1,130 redundancies, or 16% of the workforce, at its Italian business amid competitive pressure in that country.

Earlier, analysts at JPMorgan Cazenove said Vodafone management should voluntarily cut the dividend to support deleveraging efforts and restore confidence to the under-pressure shares, saying that a 30% cut would leaving the dividend well covered by free cash flow, support additional deleveraging and still offer an attractive 7% yield.

On the downside, Persimmon fell after The Times reported over the weekend that it has launched a lawsuit against BT over unpaid work on hundreds of its sites.

Persimmon was said to be seeking £7.2m plus interest from BT, accusing the telecoms company of violating the terms of contract by failing or refusing to inspect or certify installed equipment, or pay invoices.

In addition, traders noted that the company paid a special ex-dividend of £1.25 on Thursday, so a few income funds are now getting out.

BT shares were also weaker.

FTSE 100 - Risers

NMC Health (NMC) 2,672.00p 3.25%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 5,660.00p 2.44%
Evraz (EVR) 592.24p 2.15%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 242.90p 1.93%
3i Group (III) 959.80p 1.87%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 7,040.00p 1.81%
Aviva (AV.) 421.30p 1.54%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,144.00p 1.52%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 493.80p 1.48%
Schroders (SDR) 2,574.00p 1.30%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Persimmon (PSN) 2,194.00p -2.40%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,098.00p -1.96%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 762.20p -1.90%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 580.25p -1.40%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 470.50p -1.38%
Informa (INF) 714.40p -1.27%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,108.50p -1.26%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 848.80p -1.19%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,595.00p -1.18%
BT Group (BT.A) 213.45p -1.07%