London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 6,950.14 in afternoon trade on Wednesday after the Bank of England intervened to stabilise bond markets.
Insurance stocks were the worst performers on the index, with Legal & General and Aviva the top two losers.
Going the other way, luxury fashion brand Burberry was sitting pretty at the top of the index as it said that chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci will be stepping down at the end of the month. Tisci has decided to leave after almost five years, during which he spearheaded Burberry’s creative transformation. Tisci will be succeeded by Daniel Lee, who will join the group on 3 October.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: “The rise in Burberry’s share price is perplexing given the news that chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci is leaving, as he was well respected. Yet in the fickle world of fashion, trends come and go, and so the arrival of someone new may just have excited investors.”
He pointed out that Tisci’s replacement Lee is “credited for helping to breathe some new life into Italian luxury brand Bottega Veneta”.
Spirax-Sarco also gained after the manufacturing firm agreed to buy US custom electric thermal solutions specialist Durex International in a deal valued at $342.2m.
Elsewhere, miners Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto also rose.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,940.37 -0.63%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,917.36 -2.24%
techMARK (TASX) 4,137.02 -0.53%
FTSE 100 – Risers
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,754.50p 4.16%
Fresnillo (FRES) 735.40p 3.11%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,692.50p 1.89%
National Grid (NG.) 963.60p 1.62%
Glencore (GLEN) 478.85p 1.58%
GSK (GSK) 1,337.00p 1.55%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,355.00p 1.33%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,250.00p 1.18%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,835.00p 1.12%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,607.00p 1.07%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 213.10p -8.70%
Aviva (AV.) 374.60p -8.39%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 129.70p -8.08%
M&G (MNG) 164.85p -7.96%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 526.40p -5.80%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 511.40p -5.51%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 521.40p -5.17%
Barclays (BARC) 147.98p -5.04%
RS Group (RS1) 945.50p -4.83%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 65.89p -4.82%
