London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.1% at 7,022.41 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
British Land was under the cosh after it said annual profit fell by more than one-third and the value of its properties dropped by more than 10% as the Covid-19 crisis took its toll on the commercial landlord.
Intertek was also weaker even as the inspection, product testing and certification group posted year-to-date like-for-like revenue growth of 2.7% and said it was on track to deliver its 2021 revenue targets.
On the upside, Croda was the top gainer after Goldman Sachs upgraded its stance on the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘sell’ and hiked its price target to 8,000p from 5,750p as it said the risk/reward was “positively skewed”.
The bank also lifted its FY21/22 estimate for adjusted EBIT by 7%/11% on its “more optimistic” outlook in Consumer Care (CC) and Life Sciences (LS), where it sees a confluence of tailwinds in cosmetics and skincare, Ag and patient health care accelerating growth.
Housebuilders Persimmon, Berkeley, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey rose.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Croda International (CRDA) 7,030.00p 2.81%
Persimmon (PSN) 3,136.00p 2.32%
Entain (ENT) 1,663.50p 1.84%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,682.00p 1.61%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 762.60p 1.60%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 172.75p 1.53%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,378.00p 1.50%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,007.00p 1.49%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,539.00p 1.32%
BT Group (BT.A) 176.35p 1.29%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
British Land Company (BLND) 494.80p -4.77%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,666.00p -4.74%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 102.68p -2.60%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 495.10p -2.54%
Evraz (EVR) 641.20p -2.29%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 48.04p -2.10%
Schroders (SDR) 3,501.00p -2.07%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 441.10p -1.97%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,967.00p -1.94%
M&G (MNG) 231.80p -1.90%
