London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.6% at 7,247.77 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Royal Mail rallied after saying it would return £400m of cash to shareholders as the delivery service swung to a statutory profit in the first half of the year. Operating profit for the six months to 26 September was £311m compared with a £20m loss a year earlier as revenue rose 7.3% to £6.07bn. Pre-tax profit rose to £315m from £17m.
Housebuilders Persimmon, Berkeley, Barratt and Taylor Wimpey all gained after FTSE 250 peer Crest Nicholson lifted its full-year profit expectations as the contribution from the sale of its share in the Surrey Longcross film studio was more than expected. It also hailed a “strong” sales performance throughout the second half of the year, with current sales rates remaining robust across all regions.
On the downside, GlaxoSmithKline fell as it traded without entitlement to the dividend.
Oil giants Shell and BP gushed lower as the oil price hit a near six-week low after the US reportedly asked some of the world’s largest oil consuming nations to consider releasing crude stockpiles.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Royal Mail (RMG) 475.30p 8.52%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,822.00p 4.91%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,475.00p 4.17%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 696.80p 4.09%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 159.10p 4.05%
Informa (INF) 523.20p 3.20%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 744.80p 3.13%
SEGRO (SGRO) 1,365.50p 2.40%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 293.70p 1.98%
Experian (EXPN) 3,428.00p 1.63%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Darktrace (DARK) 531.00p -3.45%
Fresnillo (FRES) 956.20p -3.10%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,793.00p -2.94%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,226.00p -2.58%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) 1,649.40p -2.51%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,520.00p -2.50%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ (RDSA) 1,648.20p -2.44%
BP (BP.) 334.05p -2.32%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 5,836.00p -2.31%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,482.00p -2.27%
