FTSE 100 movers: Halma heads higher; Ashtead hit by downgrade
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.6% at 7,131.27 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Safety equipment maker Halma was the top gainer a day after the release of its full-year results. On Thursday, Halma increased its final dividend by 8% as it posted record annual profit and said the current year had started well.
BT Group was under the cosh, having rallied on Thursday after multibillionaire telecoms dealmaker Patrick Drahi bought a 12.1% stake in BT to capitalise on the company's involvement in the rollout of faster broadband in the UK.
Drahi bought 1.2 billion BT shares through Altice UK, which he wholly owns. Altice is Drahi's telecoms group and Altice UK is separate from other companies in the group.
Ashtead was under the cosh after Deutsche Bank downgraded its stance on shares of the equipment rental firm to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ but lifted the price target to 5,108p from 4,750p, as it argued the valuation is outstripping returns.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Halma (HLMA) 2,768.00p 3.28%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 3,913.00p 2.95%
Evraz (EVR) 640.60p 2.79%
Glencore (GLEN) 328.75p 2.77%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 168.20p 2.62%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,316.00p 2.57%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,422.00p 2.34%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,531.50p 2.30%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 445.50p 2.13%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 2,268.00p 2.02%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
BT Group (BT.A) 190.15p -2.56%
Informa (INF) 545.80p -2.15%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,493.00p -1.99%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,605.50p -1.20%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 492.00p -1.11%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,020.00p -0.95%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,632.00p -0.79%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 433.80p -0.54%
Royal Mail (RMG) 585.80p -0.51%
Diageo (DGE) 3,443.00p -0.40%