FTSE 100 movers: Rolls-Royce gains again; HSBC tanks on results
London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 7,282.13 in afternoon trade, as investors sifted through a raft of corporate news, including a disappointing set of results from banking giant HSBC.
Rolls-Royce was the standout performer, enjoying healthy gains for the second day in a row after Goldman Sachs upgraded the aerospace and defence group to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ and added it to its Conviction List.
It said the company has the potential to substantially increase free cash flow between now and 2020.
Outsourcer Capita reversed earlier losses to trade up after writing down the value of a number of historic contracts.
HSBC was the worst performer after it threw in an extra £1bn share buyback and offered assurances about maintaining its dividend to try and keep investors onside as it reported a bigger-than-expected drop in annual profits and admitted it may need to move 1,000 jobs from London to Paris over the next two years due to Brexit.
Europe's largest lender and the largest FTSE 100 constituent delivered a reported profit before tax of $7.1bn that was down 62% on the prior year. Peers RBS and Barclays were also in the red.
Mediclinic was on the back foot as it warned there will be a fall in revenue in its Middle East business.
Anglo American was also weaker as it said it swung to a profit for the year to the end of December as commodity prices rose and that it has cancelled some of its plans to sell a number of assets.
Risers
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 728.00p 2.82%
BP (BP.) 455.30p 2.27%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 202.60p 2.07%
Sage Group (SGE) 645.00p 1.65%
CRH (CRH) 2,825.00p 1.47%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,031.00p 1.45%
Capita (CPI) 521.00p 1.36%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,106.00p 1.25%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,196.00p 1.17%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,855.50p 1.14%
Fallers
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 662.30p -7.02%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 757.00p -5.61%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,331.00p -2.35%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,290.00p -2.15%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,503.00p -1.76%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 255.10p -1.47%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,088.00p -1.27%
Barclays (BARC) 234.95p -1.07%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,345.50p -1.07%
3i Group (III) 710.50p -1.04%