FTSE 100 movers: Reckitt weighs on index; Barratt in favour
Reckitt Benckiser weighed on the FTSE 100 as the index struggled to make any headway on Monday afternoon.
The shares were lower after the company reported a rise in pre-tax profit for the year on Monday and an increase in revenue, although like-for-like sales were flat.
2017 pre-tax profit rose to £2.5bn from £2.3bn the year before, while reported revenue was up 21% including the Mead Johnson acquisition, but like-for-like sales were flat.
The company said it achieved synergies of around $25m during the year from the Mead Johnson deal and is now expecting to achieve around $300m in annual cost savings by the end of the third full year of ownership, an increase over its original target of $250m (£200m).
Reckitt declared a final dividend of 97.7p per share, up from 95p in 2016 and bringing the total dividend 164.3p, up 7%.
AstraZeneca ticked lower after it and MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Imfinzi for the treatment of patients with unresectable Stage III non-small cell lung cancer, whose disease has not progressed following concurrent platinum-based chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Barratt Developments shares rose as the latest survey from Rightmove released earlier, which showed the average UK asking price rose 0.8% on the month in February following a 0.7% jump the month before. On the year, house prices were up 1.5% compared to a 1.1% increase in January.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,283.64 -0.15%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,775.63 0.21%
techMARK (TASX) 3,320.50 -0.03%
FTSE 100 - Risers
Evraz (EVR) 408.10p 3.42%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 376.30p 3.32%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 619.80p 1.94%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 560.20p 1.52%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.49p 1.12%
Barclays (BARC) 202.25p 1.10%
Carnival (CCL) 4,860.00p 1.02%
Next (NXT) 4,969.00p 0.98%
BP (BP.) 477.96p 0.96%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,880.50p 0.94%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,133.00p -6.62%
Shire Plc (SHP) 3,116.00p -2.69%
WPP (WPP) 1,439.00p -2.18%
Just Eat (JE.) 870.80p -2.16%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,182.00p -1.97%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,080.00p -1.79%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,378.50p -1.54%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 477.60p -1.26%
Halma (HLMA) 1,208.00p -1.23%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,386.00p -1.11%