London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 7,089.49 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Luxury fashion brand Burberry was the standout gainer after Exane upgraded the shares to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’ and lifted the price target by 29% to 2,700p.
It noted that while all luxury stocks are now above their pre Covid-19 levels, Burberry is still 8% below its January 2020 peak of 2,329p and trading at around a 30% discount to peers.
“We believe the discount in valuation is currently pricing in that Burberry i) will take much longer to recover from Covid-19 than peers and/or ii) is structurally a weaker brand,” Exane said. “We disagree on both assumptions and find sell side and investor sentiment too bearish.”
Royal Dutch Shell was also on the rise as oil prices continued to firm after OPEC agreed on Tuesday to stick to its policy of increasing production gradually up to July.
B&Q owner Kingfisher was in the red as it said it had entered into a £550m three-year revolving credit facility agreement with a group of its relationship banks. “The facility is linked to ambitious sustainability and community-based targets,” it said.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Burberry Group (BRBY) 2,195.00p 4.13%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 112.18p 2.97%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,625.00p 2.18%
British Land Company (BLND) 520.60p 1.52%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) 1,322.60p 1.21%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,943.50p 1.04%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 209.05p 0.99%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 719.60p 0.98%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 483.70p 0.98%
National Grid (NG.) 959.40p 0.98%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Kingfisher (KGF) 352.70p -2.41%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 172.60p -2.07%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 558.20p -2.04%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,575.00p -1.96%
Pearson (PSON) 827.40p -1.85%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,075.00p -1.69%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,281.00p -1.52%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,958.00p -1.51%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,647.00p -1.41%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,447.00p -1.40%
