London’s FTSE 100 was 1.2% lower at 7,510.34 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Russian steelmaker Evraz was under the cosh again amid worries about Russia and Ukraine and as it emerged that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has taken direct ownership of a near-29% stake the company.
Imperial Brands was down as it traded without entitlement to the dividend.
Standard Chartered lost ground as its annual results missed estimates. The bank also unveiled a $750m share buyback, lifted profit targets and pledged higher investment in China. The Asia-focused bank said pre-tax profit doubled to $3.3bn in 2021, but missed the $3.8bn forecast by its own compiled average of 16 analysts.
Going the other way, consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser was a high riser after it suffered an £804m annual operating loss caused by the sale of its Chinese infant formula business, but was upbeat about growth. Excluding the sale of the IFCN business, operating profit fell 8.5%, or 2.6% at constant currency, to £2.94bn. Like-for-like net revenue rose 3.3% – better than its guidance – and Reckitt said it was targeting growth of 1-4% on that basis in 2022.
Mondi traded up after the paper and packaging group agreed to offload its personal care components business to Nitto Denko for €615m.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 6,105.00p 5.13%
Fresnillo (FRES) 684.00p 2.64%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 153.40p 1.52%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,204.50p 1.52%
SSE (SSE) 1,604.50p 1.29%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,992.00p 1.22%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,740.00p 1.22%
St James’s Place (STJ) 1,531.50p 0.99%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,983.00p 0.95%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,927.00p 0.68%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Evraz (EVR) 311.80p -5.52%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,754.00p -2.85%
BT Group (BT.A) 195.70p -2.59%
Abrdn (ABDN) 235.70p -2.52%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 534.80p -2.52%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 169.36p -2.32%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,583.00p -2.19%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 536.80p -2.10%
Aviva (AV.) 433.50p -1.86%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,377.00p -1.85%
