FTSE 100 movers: Tobacco stocks rally; ex-divs weigh

London's FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,258.89 in afternoon trade on Thursday.

Tobacco stocks were the standout gainers, with Imperial Brands and British American Tobacco the top two performers on the index. The rally came as Barclays said in a note that the US Food & Drug Administration will likely not publish a rule banning menthol cigarettes over the next 12 months.

Legal & General and Rolls-Royce were both on the front foot after Rolls-Royce said that its pension scheme has agreed to transfer £4.6bn of assets to L&G in what is the UK's largest ever bulk annuity.

The deal covers the transfer of assets and liabilities relating to about 33,000 pensioners who are members of the Rolls-Royce UK Pension Fund out of a total of 76,000 members and the aerospace and defence company said it will reduce its post-retirement obligations by around £4.1bn.

It said the residual obligations, "which remain well funded", will be smaller with less risk for the Trustee and Rolls-Royce to manage in the future.

On the downside, ex-dividends weighed, with Taylor Wimpey, Kingfisher, Sainsbury, Vodafone and AB Foods all in the frame.

Hargreaves Lansdown under pressure again as it remains caught up in the crisis engulfing Woodford Investment Management.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,072.00p 5.66%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,922.00p 3.31%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 826.20p 2.35%
Fresnillo (FRES) 806.00p 2.08%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,038.00p 1.95%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,826.50p 1.78%
National Grid (NG.) 814.80p 1.76%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 264.50p 1.57%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,496.50p 1.46%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 895.60p 1.43%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 155.70p -7.95%
Kingfisher (KGF) 208.40p -4.45%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 194.80p -3.66%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,909.50p -3.63%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 128.40p -3.53%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 223.30p -3.08%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,212.00p -2.12%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,527.00p -1.86%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,647.00p -1.38%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 321.90p -1.29%