FTSE 100 movers: Glaxo surges, Unilever slumps on deal news

by | Jan 17, 2022

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.8% at 7,604.90 in afternoon trade on Monday.
GlaxoSmithKline surged after revealing it had rebuffed a £50bn offer from Unilever for its consumer healthcare business – a joint venture with Pfizer. Unilever shares slid. Glaxo said it had rejected three proposals from Unilever, all of which “fundamentally undervalued” the business and its future prospects.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “The market has given a thumbs down to news that Unilever has bid for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer goods division. The negative share price reaction probably reflects investors’ fears that Unilever is going to come back with a higher offer and potentially pay too much.

“GlaxoSmithKline’s share price has jumped on the news as Unilever’s actions effectively fire the starting gun for a bid war for the consumer goods unit. Nestle could be interested, so too private equity.”

Elsewhere, Taylor Wimpey gained after the housebuilder said it was is set to meet its annual targets following an “excellent” year, and pledged to return excess cash to shareholders.

Chilean copper miner Antofagasta rallied after UBS upgraded the shares to ‘neutral’ from ‘sell’ and lifted the price target to 1,400p from 1,300p as it said the risk/reward was more balanced after recent underperformance.

“ANTO’s strong balance sheet, cost position & low risk growth in our view means the stock offers relatively low-risk copper exposure and has historically traded at a premium to peers,” it said.

“After underperformance in 2H21 in our view tax increases in Chile are likely to be priced in (albeit the size of increase is unknown) and ANTO’s valuation is fair with the stock discounting a copper price of $3.60-4.00/lb, 10- 20% below spot.”

FTSE 100 – Risers

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,699.60p 3.57%
Admiral Group (ADM) 3,213.00p 3.28%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 158.70p 3.09%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,124.00p 3.00%
Informa (INF) 572.00p 2.88%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,371.00p 2.84%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,415.50p 2.65%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 807.00p 2.44%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,639.50p 2.44%
WPP (WPP) 1,217.00p 2.40%

FTSE 100 – Fallers

Unilever (ULVR) 3,659.50p -7.04%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,152.00p -0.90%
National Grid (NG.) 1,074.20p -0.63%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 11,210.00p -0.58%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 562.00p -0.50%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 674.80p -0.38%
M&G (MNG) 213.20p -0.33%
Evraz (EVR) 578.20p -0.28%
Prudential (PRU) 1,313.50p -0.23%
Barclays (BARC) 215.15p -0.16%

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