London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 7,649.64 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Consumer goods giant Unilever was a high riser. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: “Unilever shares look set to finish the week higher in the aftermath of this week’s full year results, as they continue to recover their post Glaxo bid losses.
“The decision by management to rule out the prospect of an acquisition appears to have prompted investors to allow the benefit of the doubt to management, as they look to embark on a turnaround plan. There is also the fact that despite the sound and fury of recent events, the shares still look cheap on a relative basis.”
Chilean copper miner Antofagasta gained after an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘underweight’ and lifted the price target to 1,600p from 1,145p.
British American Tobacco edged higher as it unveiled a £2bn share buyback and reported higher annual profit, boosted by sales of non-cigarette products.
Property investment and development company Segro was the worst performer on the index ahead of its full-year results next Friday.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Evraz (EVR) 448.80p 3.96%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,894.00p 3.04%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 11,325.00p 2.49%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,371.50p 2.01%
Entain (ENT) 1,705.00p 1.49%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 146.00p 1.39%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 567.80p 1.36%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 5,888.00p 0.94%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,292.50p 0.72%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,799.00p 0.47%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
SEGRO (SGRO) 1,246.00p -3.52%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 6,958.00p -3.06%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 12,295.00p -3.00%
Barclays (BARC) 202.40p -3.00%
Fresnillo (FRES) 613.00p -2.94%
Experian (EXPN) 2,957.00p -2.57%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 119.94p -2.27%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 279.40p -2.21%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,682.00p -2.15%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,817.00p -2.12%
