FTSE 100 movers: Paper, scissors, rock...Smurfit at the top

Papers, scissors, rocks.. Smurfit at the top.

Stock in corrugated packaging company Smurfit Kappa was at the top of the leaderboard - offsetting losses in miners - after telling shareholders that first-half profits were up by almost half.

On the back of those figures, the company, which had fought off an attempted takeover by International Paper of the US during the period was making another run at its 52-week highs.

Lloyds was the other standout gainer after posting pre-tax profits for the six months to the end of June of £3.1bn, which was up from £2.5bn a year earlier as income rose 2% to £9.5bn.

In a big boost for the lender's bottom-line, the cost of PPI and other remediation programmes fell to £807m from £1.59bn as the PPI charge fell to £550m from £1.05bn.

Commenting on the bank's latest set of figures, Laith Khalaf at Hargreaves Lansdown said: "Next August marks the cut off-date for claims, which may flush out some more consumer activity, because there's nothing that stimulates action quite like a deadline.

"In the short term that may mean Lloyds has to dip into its pockets again, but in the long run that's going to free up a lot of cash for shareholders. The PPI scandal has now cost Lloyds over £19 billion over the last 8 years, money the bank would have dearly loved to use elsewhere.

"While the reported numbers are heavily skewed by PPI, Lloyds' underlying profit growth shows the bank is in rude health."

Nevertheless, shares were trading near the bottom-end of their 52-week trading range.

To take note of, the UK government bond curve had been steepening over the last few sessions, ahead of the Monetary Policy Committee's decision on rates scheduled for Thursday, and was doing so again on Wednesday.

Schroders was also near the top of the leaderboard, benefiting from a positive endorsement out of analysts at UBS, which they believed was "well-positioned" to generate long-term, over-the-cycle value for investors.

On the other side of ledger, Rio Tinto's share price was caving-in after the miner unveiled a record interim dividend of $2.2bn, even as it topped-up its share repurchase programme with another $1.0bn of funds.

To take note of, together with higher outlays on capital expenditures, that meant net debt was set to jump from $3.85bn in the comparable year-ago period to $5.23bn.

Next ....

Honesty may be the best policy, but in the short-term it can carry costs with it.

Thus, stock in Next was dragging on General Retailers after the fashion retailer said that recent hot weather had simply brought forward spending on merchandise usually purchased in August.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 3,204.00p 2.36%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 63.59p 1.94%
Schroders (SDR) 3,170.95p 1.86%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,404.00p 1.22%
Croda International (CRDA) 5,202.00p 1.21%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 2,098.00p 1.06%
Mondi (MNDI) 2,115.00p 0.86%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,818.00p 0.58%
Sage Group (SGE) 624.80p 0.45%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 262.30p 0.38%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Next (NXT) 5,521.90p -6.98%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 326.80p -3.68%
Glencore (GLEN) 323.60p -3.26%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 298.29p -3.15%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,065.50p -3.12%
Centrica (CNA) 144.45p -2.89%
CRH (CRH) 2,540.00p -2.79%
National Grid (NG.) 790.90p -2.75%
BAE Systems (BA.) 636.00p -2.63%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,709.40p -2.58%