(Sharecast News) – London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4% at 7,486.03 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Miners were on the rise after encouraging Chinese manufacturing data. The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 50.7 in November from 49.5 in October.
This was above the 50.0 level that separates contraction from expansion and marked the fastest expansion in three months. However, it contrasted with the official manufacturing PMI released on Thursday, which nudged down to 49.4 from 49.5.
More specifically, Anglo American and Antofagasta were boosted by upgrades to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at UBS. On Anglo, it said the risk/reward was attractive after underperformance.
On Antofagasta, UBS said the bottom-up investment case was at an inflection.
Tesco was in the red after JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded the shares to ‘underweight’ from ‘neutral’ and cut the price target to 230p from 240p as it took a look at the European food retail sector, highlighting its cautious stance.
“We see Tesco’s outperformance previously linked to executed self-help and macro tailwinds, therefore unlikely to be structural/sustainable over time without incremental investment,” it said.
The bank noted that Tesco shares are up 25% year-to-date, versus its price target indicating 15% downside.
“Long positioning is crowded, whilst Tesco is now past peak positive newsflow/LFLs/margin/free cash flow/capital return cycle,” it said.
FTSE 100 – Risers
Anglo American (AAL) 2,262.00p 5.60%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,467.50p 4.19%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,551.00p 2.82%
Glencore (GLEN) 453.25p 2.59%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 6,238.00p 1.99%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,152.00p 1.97%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 528.80p 1.97%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,871.00p 1.74%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 5,432.00p 1.68%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 583.20p 1.67%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 589.00p -1.83%
Pearson (PSON) 924.20p -1.39%
Tesco (TSCO) 281.90p -1.36%
Entain (ENT) 792.00p -1.35%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 709.20p -1.28%
Croda International (CRDA) 4,440.00p -0.98%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 227.30p -0.87%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 718.60p -0.83%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,495.50p -0.66%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 284.50p -0.49%
