FTSE 100 movers: HSBC rallies on update; gold miners lose their shine
London's FTSE 100 was up 1.5% to 7,044.54 in afternoon trade on Monday as investors braced for the Budget.
Melrose Industries - which supplies parts and systems for cars - was sitting pretty at the top of the FTSE 100 leader board following a Bloomberg report that China's regulator is considering cutting tax most cars in half to boost flagging sales in its automotive market.
Johnson Matthey, which supplies catalytic converters, also racked up solid gains on the back of the report.
HSBC Holdings was on the front foot as it reported stronger profit growth than expected for the third quarter as all three of the bank's main businesses enjoyed good growth and progress was made with cost cutting efforts. Profit before tax for quarter of $5.9bn was 28% higher than the same quarter last year, with adjusted PBT up 16% to $6.2bn.
On the downside, precious metals miners Randgold Resources and Fresnillo were under the cosh as gold prices pulled back from their recent highs as risk appetite returned to markets.
"Bullish momentum did appear to be gradually slipping away in recent days so perhaps we’re now seeing a little bit of a corrective move in the yellow metal, although that will only last as long as US markets hold up," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam. "As we’ve seen in recent months, appetite for Gold spiked when the US market gave way and I see no reason to think it will be any different in the coming weeks."
Just Eat was under the cosh after Peel Hunt cut the stock to 'sell' from 'buy' and slashed the price target to 520p from 950p, highlighting reports of a potential tie-up between Uber and Deliveroo.
"We postulate that the two of them (merged or otherwise, let’s call them Uberoo), around the world, could create an Uberoo-esque wave that eventually sees the demise of Just Eat," it said.
The brokerage said that both Uber and Deliveroo are capable of out-investing the company in delivery and are entering the more lucrative marketplace sector.
Among the reasons for its downgrade, it cited Uber Eats' growing strength in the smartphone real estate, Deliveroo's deep pockets fuelling market share gains and the diminishing uniqueness of Just Eat's data.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Melrose Industries (MRO) 163.40p 6.10%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 637.80p 5.42%
Evraz (EVR) 528.20p 5.01%
Royal Mail (RMG) 364.20p 4.45%
BT Group (BT.A) 239.00p 4.09%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,952.00p 4.09%
ITV (ITV) 148.60p 3.77%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 480.30p 3.77%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,381.00p 3.76%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 266.60p 3.74%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,238.00p -2.77%
Fresnillo (FRES) 891.80p -1.98%
Just Eat (JE.) 592.40p -1.56%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,592.50p -0.73%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,625.00p -0.67%
WPP (WPP) 868.40p -0.64%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,391.00p -0.25%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,355.00p -0.21%
Centrica (CNA) 147.45p -0.14%
Diageo (DGE) 2,691.50p -0.13%