FTSE 100 movers: Rentokil rallies on results but RSA Insurance retreats
London's FTSE 100 was down 0.4% to 7,080.92 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
RSA Insurance slumped as it posted a drop in 2018 underlying pre-tax profit, dragged lower by its London Market business. Underlying pre-tax profit fell to £492m from £620m the year before.
Rolls-Royce fell as the engine maker said it has decided to withdraw from the current competition to power Boeing's proposed new midsize aeroplane. It also reported a £1.2bn loss due to exceptional charges, though underlying earnings were much improved and free cash flow more than doubled to £641m last year, with management aiming to generate at least £1bn by 2020.
Miners BHP and Antofagasta took a hit after the release of weak Chinese factory data. The official purchasing managers’ index released by Beijing's National Bureau of Statistics fell to 49.2 in February from 49.5 the month before, missing expectations for it to remain unchanged and contract to a three-year low.
EasyJet and AstraZeneca were weaker as their stock went ex-dividend.
On the upside, pest control giant Rentokil rallied to the top of the leaderboard as it reported an 8.8% increase in full-year adjusted pre-tax profit and said it expects "a slight increase" in market expectations for 2019.
Building materials group CRH gained as it reported record earnings for 2018, thanks in part to good demand in the US. In the year to 31 December 2018, group profit rose 31% to €2.52bn as revenue pushed up 6% to €26.79bn.
Meanwhile, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased 7% to a record €3.37bn.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 352.30p 7.08%
St James's Place (STJ) 970.60p 3.12%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 270.10p 1.77%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,664.00p 1.76%
ITV (ITV) 129.20p 1.53%
SEGRO (SGRO) 661.20p 1.47%
CRH (CRH) 2,392.00p 1.40%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,722.00p 1.29%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 179.15p 1.21%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 494.10p 1.21%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
easyJet (EZJ) 1,219.50p -7.01%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,765.00p -4.34%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 505.00p -4.10%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,118.00p -3.73%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 337.40p -3.02%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 954.20p -2.91%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 6,120.00p -2.59%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,756.80p -2.53%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 525.40p -2.49%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 942.20p -2.30%