FTSE 100 movers: Rolls-Royce rallies; Pearson hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was down 1.8% at 5,826.14 in afternoon trade on Thursday.

Mondi was on the back foot after the packaging group reported a drop in third-quarter profit as lower average selling prices and negative currency effects more than offset lower costs.

Pearson was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘underweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at Barclays, which cut its price target on the shares of the education publisher to 520p from 570p as it pointed to multiple risks to 2021 forecasts.

Premier Inn owner Whitbread retreated amid worries about the impact of further Covid restrictions.

Engine maker Rolls-Royce was the top performer after lifting the amount it plans to raise on the corporate bond market to £2bn from £1bn following good interest from investors.

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "The fact that there has been so much investor interest in the bond offering could be seen as a vote of confidence in its long term strategy.

"That plan focuses on Rolls Royce’s Defence and Power Systems businesses, as Civil Aviation struggles to recover, and is unlikely to do so for some time. Its gold plated brand will certainly have attracted investors, even though it’s lost the investment grade rating on its debt.

"But Rolls Royce will be left counting the cost of servicing that debt, as the bonds come with much higher coupons, or interest due, than previous issues."

FTSE 100 - Risers

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 184.70p 2.61%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 9,516.00p 1.19%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 356.60p 0.51%
Flutter Entertainment (FLTR) 13,015.00p 0.35%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 509.60p 0.00%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,718.00p -0.18%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 199.65p -0.27%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 574.40p -0.38%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 295.40p -0.40%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,668.00p -0.45%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 941.70p -4.87%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 916.80p -4.57%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,592.00p -4.53%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,484.50p -4.50%
Pearson (PSON) 539.80p -4.39%
BP (BP.) 203.35p -4.37%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,154.00p -4.05%
Glencore (GLEN) 162.32p -3.83%
Aviva (AV.) 276.20p -3.80%
Prudential (PRU) 1,081.50p -3.44%