London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.8% at 6,701.63 in afternoon trade on Friday.
BT Group was the standout gainer after Credit Suisse upped its price target and reiterated its ‘outperform’ rating on the shares, labelling the stock an ‘inflection story’ and arguing that it was set to benefit from several tailwinds, including rising inflation and government bond yields.
CS said the telecommunications group was set to extend the reach of its fibre-to-the-premises offering to 16m premises by financial year 2025. In turn, the shift towards fibre would boost its average revenues per user, as at rivals Deutsche Telekom and KPN.
A “strong” recovery from the hit taken from Covid-19 is also in the works, CS said, starting from the first quarter of the 2022 financial year.
Banks were on the rise, with Standard Chartered, Barclays, HSBC, NatWest and Lloyds all higher.
London Stock Exchange slumped even after it posted higher full-year profit and sales driven by a stronger-than-expected showing in both its Post Trade units and Information units despite the “unparalleled” environment.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson noted the fact that LSE expects the Refinitiv deal to help grow revenues by up to 7% in the coming years and said this seems “ambitious” and that the drop in the share price could be down to shareholders being sceptical about the targets.
FTSE 100 – Risers
BT Group (BT.A) 142.65p 5.82%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 503.80p 5.55%
Barclays (BARC) 175.20p 5.12%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 444.25p 4.16%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 231.70p 3.95%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 193.15p 3.54%
BP (BP.) 323.25p 3.24%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,978.50p 3.17%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,907.50p 3.11%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 41.39p 2.59%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,296.00p -12.56%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,960.00p -3.36%
SEGRO (SGRO) 883.80p -2.15%
Fresnillo (FRES) 899.40p -1.70%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,193.00p -1.48%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,468.00p -1.43%
BAE Systems (BA.) 490.60p -1.37%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 693.10p -1.20%
Entain (ENT) 1,447.00p -1.16%
CRH (CRH) 3,329.00p -1.16%
