London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 7,275.86 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
DCC lost ground even as the sales, marketing and support services group reported a jump in first-half profit and revenue and said full-year results were on track to meet market expectations.
Housebuilder Persimmon fell even as it said it was on track to grow new home completions by 10% this year and targeted a return to pre-pandemic trading levels by 2022.
Going the other way, shares in Primark owner AB Foods surged as it announced a special dividend after the company’s balance sheet recovered from the impact of the Covid pandemic.
Aerospace and defence giant Rolls-Royce rallied as it said that following a successful equity raise, it has now established its small modular reactor business as part of the UK government’s net zero strategy.
BT was on the rise after an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ by Berenberg, which lifted its price target to 200p from 175p as it highlighted four positive developments in the investment case.
The bank noted that even after last week’s strength, BT remains the fourth worst-performing stock in the FTSE 100 in calendar H2.
However, since Berenberg downgraded it in May, there have been four positive developments in the investment case, relating to Patrick Drahi, the pension, capex and the strength of management’s tone on guidance.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,001.00p 7.67%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 147.84p 4.29%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,753.50p 3.06%
BT Group (BT.A) 162.85p 2.78%
Pearson (PSON) 611.00p 1.73%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 12,660.00p 1.44%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 112.52p 1.41%
WPP (WPP) 1,091.00p 1.30%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,525.00p 1.29%
SEGRO (SGRO) 1,325.50p 1.26%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 6,084.00p -3.21%
Darktrace (DARK) 629.00p -3.16%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,407.50p -2.39%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,658.00p -2.32%
Abrdn (ABDN) 258.40p -2.08%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,970.00p -1.82%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 651.40p -1.78%
3i Group (III) 1,354.50p -1.71%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 48.32p -1.70%
Aviva (AV.) 396.60p -1.66%
