FTSE 100 movers: Reckitt rallies on new appointment; BAT declines

London's FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 7,368.96 in afternoon trade on Wednesday amid renewed worries about Sino-US trade relations.

Reckitt Benckiser was the standout gainer after it said outsider and PepsiCo executive Laxman Narasimhan will replace Rakesh Kapoor as chief executive officer.

Narasimhan will join the consumer goods giant as CEO-designate and be appointed to the board as an executive director starting from 16 July, being expected to take over as Group CEO beginning from 1 September.

RBC Capital Markets said it had assumed the company would make an internal appointment.

"Our reasoning was that Reckitt Benckiser would be broken up over the next 18 months into two separately owned businesses, health and hygiene/home (Hyho), following the completion of the Reckitt Benckiser 2.0 programme.

"In our view, the appointment of an external CEO makes that less likely: we find it improbable that a potential CEO would be keen taking charge of a business which is going to decline by 40% shortly after joining."

On the downside, British American Tobacco was the worst performer on the top-flight index even as it reaffirmed full-year expectations with constant currency revenue growth in the mid-upper half of long-term guidance range of 3-5%.

IG market analyst Chris Beauchamp said: "British American Tobacco had rallied hard into today’s trading update, so the ‘steady as she goes’ message was unlikely to inspire short-term traders to hold on to their positions. Having declared that the second half will see new products come to the rescue, the firm has set a very high bar for itself, which might come back to haunt them in due course."

Auto Trader was in the red as UBS cut the stock to 'sell' from 'neutral', saying it is now "priced for near perfection". The bank lifted its price target on the shares to 540p from 530p.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,641.00p 3.85%
Fresnillo (FRES) 808.40p 2.64%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,248.00p 1.71%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,974.50p 1.15%
Evraz (EVR) 670.00p 1.06%
Diageo (DGE) 3,427.50p 0.97%
DCC (DCC) 7,004.00p 0.84%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,072.00p 0.83%
Relx plc (REL) 1,891.65p 0.75%
Halma (HLMA) 1,996.00p 0.73%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,930.00p -4.59%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 586.80p -3.17%
CRH (CRH) 2,487.00p -2.89%
BP (BP.) 541.40p -2.80%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 684.60p -2.42%
Centrica (CNA) 91.68p -2.34%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,128.00p -2.04%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,774.50p -1.83%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,020.50p -1.80%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 458.90p -1.73%