London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,490.10 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Harbour Energy jumped to the top of the index after the oil and gas producer lifted its share buyback programme by $100m and said pre-tax profits for the six months to June 30 surged to $1.5bn from $120m.
Building products maker CRH also gained as it said it expects full-year core earnings to rise slightly to $5.5bn “against a continually challenging cost environment” after posting an increase in interim profits.
Oil giants Shell and BP gushed higher as oil prices rose. Shell was also in focus after Ofgem fined the company for overcharging more than 11,000 customers paying its default tariffs.
AstraZeneca was up after three of its drugs – Ultomiris, Tagrisso and Lynparza – were approved for use in Japan.
On the downside, Phoenix Group fell as it traded without entitlement to the dividend.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Harbour Energy (HBR) 488.10p 13.38%
Fresnillo (FRES) 753.00p 3.49%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,840.00p 3.27%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,227.00p 3.07%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 545.00p 1.95%
BP (BP.) 461.20p 1.82%
Shell (SHEL) 2,326.00p 1.46%
Glencore (GLEN) 504.70p 1.41%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 11,492.00p 1.25%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,161.00p 1.22%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Persimmon (PSN) 1,467.00p -4.99%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 599.80p -4.55%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 376.60p -3.26%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 113.05p -3.09%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,467.50p -2.91%
Prudential (PRU) 907.80p -2.39%
Haleon (HLN) 262.65p -2.29%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 426.20p -2.18%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,199.00p -2.01%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 869.60p -1.98%
