FTSE 100 movers: Retailers boosted by Next; Pearson hit by downgrade
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.9% at 7,652.95 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Standard Chartered was the standout gainer on the index after First Abu Dhabi Bank said it was no longer interested in buying the company.
Responding to press speculation, First Abu Dhabi confirmed it had previously been at the "very early stages" of evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered, but is no longer doing so.
Retailer Next also rallied after it lifted its full-year profit guidance as it reported better-than-expected sales over the Christmas period.
In the nine weeks to 30 December, full price sales rose 4.8% versus last year. This was £66m ahead of the company’s previous guidance of a 2% decline for the period.
Next upgraded its full-year pre-tax profit guidance by £20m to £860m, up 4.5% on the year.
JD Sports Fashion and Frasers Group also rose.
HSBC was boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ at Jefferies, which hiked its price target on the shares to 770p from 574p as it said the bank was positively-geared to a re-opening in China.
British Airways and Iberia owner IAG flew higher after Ryanair upgraded its profit guidance on Wednesday.
On the downside, educational publisher Pearson was knocked lower by a rating downgrade at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Standard Chartered (STAN) 706.20p 6.94%
Next (NXT) 6,518.00p 6.89%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,747.50p 4.48%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 563.00p 3.59%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 140.05p 3.55%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,289.00p 3.43%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 759.00p 3.12%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 138.26p 2.76%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,595.50p 2.67%
Kingfisher (KGF) 253.90p 2.67%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Pearson (PSON) 898.00p -5.91%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,470.00p -3.98%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 522.00p -1.62%
SEGRO (SGRO) 789.40p -1.60%
Experian (EXPN) 2,852.00p -1.38%
Haleon (HLN) 318.40p -1.29%
Relx plc (REL) 2,335.00p -1.27%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,710.00p -1.06%
M&G (MNG) 191.15p -0.98%
Aviva (AV.) 452.50p -0.94%