London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,550.68 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Shell and BP gushed higher as oil prices rose, while miners Glencore, Anglo and Rio were up amid firmer metals prices.
On the downside, Pearson tanked as US investment manager Apollo Global Management said it does not plan to make an offer for the educational publisher after they were unable to agree terms.
Experian lost ground after Citi downgraded the shares to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’, arguing that cyclical headwinds are likely to make it difficult for the North American data business to deliver consensus FY23E organic growth of 8.2%.
“In an environment in which US housing transactions reduce year-over-year, we think 4% is more reasonable.,” it said.
“With our group adjusted profit before tax of $1,707m circa 2% below Visible Alpha consensus at $1,743m, we do not believe that consensus earnings estimates can continue to rise, driving the downgrade.”
Lloyds was also weaker after RBC Capital Markets cut its rating to ‘underperform’ from ‘outperform’.
“The vision for the bank is too long-dated and comes with significant execution risk; we would rather wait before buying into the story,” it said.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Shell (SHEL) 2,101.00p 3.91%
Glencore (GLEN) 497.35p 3.47%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,923.00p 3.21%
Fresnillo (FRES) 736.00p 2.91%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,984.00p 2.38%
BP (BP.) 379.05p 2.07%
SSE (SSE) 1,735.50p 1.58%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,102.50p 1.29%
Severn Trent (SVT) 3,006.00p 1.18%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,885.00p 1.07%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Pearson (PSON) 732.80p -6.74%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 153.60p -4.21%
Next (NXT) 6,290.00p -3.53%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 3,130.00p -3.51%
Experian (EXPN) 2,962.00p -3.46%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 129.20p -3.44%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,892.00p -3.24%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 48.43p -3.15%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 145.14p -2.92%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,721.50p -2.90%
