Handful of stocks gain ground in equity market bloodbath

Despite the post-Brexit bloodbath in equity markets on Friday, there were a few stocks in the black.

Defence and aerospace firm Rolls-Royce racked up the strongest gains, followed closely by beverage can maker Rexam. Pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline was also higher, along with AstraZeneca.

“Some of the defensive stocks are outperforming the FTSE this morning given the shock result from referendum,” said Jawaid Afsar, senior trader at Securequity.

“AstraZeneca and Glaxo are defying the gloom, with the weaker pound helping as these companies are dollar earners. Utilities will be sought for their defensive nature, excluding SSE, which could come under pressure if Scotland was to demand its own referendum.”

As far as Rolls-Royce is concerned, Guardian Stockbrokers’ director of trading Atif Latif said: “Bearing in mind that most of the revenue is outside the EU, this news has brought some buying.”

RR said on Friday that while Brexit was not the outcome it would have chosen, two thirds of its revenue and three quarters of its order book are generated outside the EU, so there will be no immediate impact on the day-to-day business.

Gold-related shares also got a boost as the yellow metal surged on its safe-haven appeal, with mid-caps Acacia Mining, Centamin and Randgold Resources all sharply higher.

At 1057 BST, the FTSE 100 was down 5% to 6,020.90 and the FTSE 250 was 8.3% weaker at 15,901.37.

The 250 index was expected to underperform the 100 as mid-caps are significantly more domestic than large caps and tend to underperform when sterling weakens.