FTSE 100 movers: Reckitt Benckiser, Randgold, Centrica

Reckitt Benckiser bumped up its target for like-for-like revenue growth and investors did the same with stock in the consumer goods giant. Pre-tax profit for the six months ended 30 June came in at £912m from £838m in the same period last year, on net revenue of £4.36bn, up 4% from 2014. Company boss Rakesh Kapoor added that “Given our strong half-year performance, and accelerated delivery of Project Supercharge savings, we now expect to exceed the targets we set at the beginning of the year.”

Shares in precious metals producers Randgold Resources and Fresnillo bounced back as a wave of risk aversion swept across markets again at the start of the week. That followed the largest drop overnight in Chinese stocks since June 2007 despite a raft of government support measures. Euro/dollar also bounced back 1.24% to 1.1118 as investors reined in their horns. Gold futures for delivery in August snapped higher by 1.10% to end the day at $1,097 per ounce out on COMEX.

Centrica got a boost after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘underperform’ and raised its price target to 320p from 240p, saying it has fundamentally changed its view following deeper analysis of retail operations. “As a result of attractive financials and Centrica’s unique positioning in retail markets, led by the Connected Home, we flip our recommendation to outperform,” said the analysts from RBC.

Shares in Merlin Entertainment plunged after it warned full-year earnings would be about half of what it made last year, following a roller-coaster crash at its Alton Towers theme park in June.