FTSE 100 movers: Vodafone rallies, but Daily Mail and Diageo lose ground

London’s FTSE 100 index was trading down 0.3% at 6,634 on Friday as investors sifted through a raft of earnings reports.

Vodafone was the biggest riser on the FTSE 100 after it said it has made a good start to the year, with organic service revenue up 0.8% in the quarter ended 30 June as the European businesses return to growth and customer demand for 4G and data takes off. Service revenue is the money the mobile phone company gets from customers’ plans and traffic on its network. The figures came in better than expected and ahead of the 0.1% increase in the fourth quarter.

Publisher Pearson was also on the front foot after it reaffirmed its profit expectations for the year and raised its dividend by 6% to 18p. The stock was also resuming its upward trend from Thursday, when it emerged the company was selling the Financial Times and associated business titles to Japan’s Nikkei for £844m.

Anglo American rose as investors breathed a sigh of relief that the miner had maintained its dividend after posting a 36% drop in first-half underlying earnings before interest and tax amid declining commodity prices. The company also announced that it was targeting $500m in costs savings, of which $300 million will be realised from its ongoing core business, through the reduction of 6,000 overhead and other indirect roles.

On the downside, Daily Mail & General Trust was the standout loser on the top-flight index, suffering a second day of losses after it said on Thursday that its full-year results were likely to be towards the lower end of market expectations as a result of a weaker-than-expected UK print advertising market and more challenging conditions for B2B.

Drinks maker Diageo was also in the red after the US Securities and Exchange Commission said it had launched an investigation into whether the company has been shipping excess stocks to customers to boost its results.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Vodafone Group (VOD) 239.95p +3.45%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,306.00p +1.63%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,185.00p +1.25%
Experian (EXPN) 1,196.00p +1.01%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,151.00p +0.88%
British Land Company (BLND) 834.50p +0.79%
G4S (GFS) 269.70p +0.78%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,095.00p +0.67%
SSE (SSE) 1,514.00p +0.46%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,102.00p +0.46%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,508.00p -2.39%
Diageo (DGE) 1,867.00p -2.10%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 615.50p -2.07%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 956.50p -1.85%
Old Mutual (OML) 212.40p -1.80%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,148.00p -1.71%
Glencore (GLEN) 216.30p -1.70%
Prudential (PRU) 1,522.50p -1.65%
Aviva (AV.) 519.00p -1.61%
Kingfisher (KGF) 368.40p -1.60%