(Sharecast News) – London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.2% at 7,457.18 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Spirax-Sarco Engineering rallied after UBS upgraded the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ and lifted the price target to 12,400p from 11,560p, citing an attractive entry point.
“We now see the shares as presenting an attractive entry point, having de-risked our FY23e estimates and updated our views on the drivers of growth ahead of IP from next year,” it said. “We note near-term risk/reward is now better balanced, following share price weakness in Q2 (-15% underperformance versus defensive peer Halma).”
UBS added that while consensus has been coming down recently, the shares are not reacting to downgrades.
It said the stock’s valuation is as attractive now as it was at the Covid trough in March 2020 on an EV/ EBIT basis.
On the downside, Croda fell after Barclays cut its price target on the shares to 6,600p from 7,200p.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 10,420.00p 2.76%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,538.00p 2.01%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,293.00p 1.89%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,224.00p 1.63%
Halma (HLMA) 2,237.00p 1.45%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 72.89p 1.33%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 633.60p 1.28%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 845.00p 1.27%
Rightmove (RMV) 540.80p 1.20%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 724.50p 1.19%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Croda International (CRDA) 5,670.00p -2.24%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 606.40p -2.19%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 225.20p -1.01%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 147.80p -1.00%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,071.00p -0.91%
IMI (IMI) 1,591.00p -0.87%
Fresnillo (FRES) 630.40p -0.85%
Aviva (AV.) 388.00p -0.82%
BP (BP.) 462.50p -0.68%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,448.00p -0.65%
