FTSE 100 movers: Housebuilders rally; L&G goes ex-dividend
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 5,791.88 in afternoon trade on Thursday, with housebuilders pacing the gains.
Taylor Wimpey was a high riser after saying it would start a phased return to construction in May as it reported rising orders for new homes. Fellow housebuilders Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Berkeley all rose.
Meggitt was up as it said it was cutting its global workforce by 15% and that it has begun to see a softening in the last few weeks in its civil aerospace business, both in terms of revenue and the forward order book.
British Gas owner Centrica was also in the black, having slumped on Wednesday on the back of a downgrade at Jefferies.
On the downside, Legal & General was weaker as its stock went ex-dividend.
Just Eat Takeaway.com was in the red as the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority approved Takeaway.com's £6.2bn merger with Just Eat and after the company said it had raised just over €700m (£613m) from investors to reduce debt and for use on strategic opportunities.
The company placed 4.6m shares with investors to raise €400.2m of equity before transaction costs. The sale represented 3.2% of its share capital and was priced at €87 a share - 3.7% less than the closing price on 22 April.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 150.65p 11.51%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,215.00p 9.65%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 517.40p 9.04%
Meggitt (MGGT) 267.20p 7.79%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,303.00p 5.47%
Centrica (CNA) 31.75p 5.10%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,703.50p 4.67%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 91.52p 4.02%
Rightmove (RMV) 471.20p 3.97%
BT Group (BT.A) 120.90p 3.38%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 190.05p -5.40%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,353.00p -3.43%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,439.50p -3.16%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 7,696.00p -2.58%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,583.00p -2.55%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 761.00p -2.06%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 201.00p -1.90%
Tesco (TSCO) 235.70p -1.83%
Informa (INF) 426.70p -1.82%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,324.50p -1.82%