London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4% at 7,534.39 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
United Utilities was weaker after a downgrade to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ on valuation grounds at JPMorgan Cazenove. Severn Trent also fell. JPM said both stocks were on “negative catalyst watch”, along with Pennon, ahead of water regulator Ofwat publishing its final methodology for the next price control, PR24, next week.
Engine maker Rolls-Royce rallied after the US awarded its Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, FLRAA to Textron’s V-280 Valor project.
The program is meant to replace the Black Hawk utility helicopters (2,000 aircraft) and Apache attack helicopters (1,200 aircraft), and first delivery is expected in 2030. Rolls-Royce provides two AE 1107F engines to power the V-280 Valor.
Jefferies said in a research note that for Rolls-Royce, this win represents a “significant” long-term boost for the defence division.
Phoenix Group rose after saying in an update that it remains on track to deliver 2022 cash generation at the top end of its target range of £1.3bn to £1.4bn.
Barclays was boosted by an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’ by JPMorgan, which lifted its price target on the stock to 220p from 180p and said it was its new UK banks “top pick”.
Equipment rental firm Ashtead gained after saying that full-year results were set to be ahead of its previous expectations as it hailed a strong first-half performance.
DS Smith was boosted by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ at Credit Suisse, but Mondi was knocked lower by a double downgrade to ‘underperform’ by the same outfit.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 93.95p 3.71%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 618.00p 3.66%
Barclays (BARC) 159.74p 2.21%
BAE Systems (BA.) 826.40p 1.27%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,100.00p 1.27%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,994.00p 1.16%
Informa (INF) 625.20p 1.13%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 628.40p 1.09%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 308.40p 1.02%
British Land Company (BLND) 404.70p 0.87%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Mondi (MNDI) 1,469.00p -4.67%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 88.77p -2.47%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,030.50p -2.46%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,704.00p -1.99%
Glencore (GLEN) 550.50p -1.98%
BP (BP.) 474.90p -1.78%
Fresnillo (FRES) 882.00p -1.67%
Halma (HLMA) 2,183.00p -1.58%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,727.00p -1.31%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 226.60p -1.31%
