FTSE 100 movers: NMC reinvigorated, Hikma hamstrung
London's FTSE 100 index was 1.13% higher at 7,400.29 in afternoon trade on Tuesday, as it followed Wall Street's push higher with Middle East focused healthcare chain and distribution business NMC Health leading the way.
Hargreaves Lansdown climbed as Citigroup raised the fund supermarket to 'neutral' from 'sell', while Ferguson inched higher after being initiated at 'buy' by Jefferies.
Asia-focused financial groups Standard Chartered and Prudential came in amongst the top gainers following Monday's rise in bond yields.
Following the sizeable losses a day earlier, EasyJet rallied as analysts at Berenberg upped their recommendation for the shares from 'sell' to ' hold', citing management's "more realistic" guidance for revenues in the back half of the year.
"The revised outlook aligns with our expectations for shorthaul pricing weakness driven by stubbornly-high capacity growth and slowing demand. easyJet’s lower yield expectations, however, now make material earnings downgrades less likely, in our view," the analysts said.
SSE recovered from Monday's drop due to expectations that political parties are upping preparations for a possible general election.
At the other end of the scales, there were few fallers on what was a risk-on day for financial markets. Drug developer Hikma Pharmaceuticals retreated from its three-month high a day earlier.
On a day of what seemed like further Brexit deadlock, domestic plays were unloved, including housebuilders and retailers such as Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Next.
Rolls-Royce was also flying lower after more problems with its Trent engines as Singapore Airlines grounded two Boeing 787 airliners because their Trent 1000 TEN engines were wearing out faster than expected.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley, said: "Our conversations with the company suggest this was viewed as a known risk factor, and believe it can be covered in existing guidance. Whilst there is clearly a risk of further increasing cash costs on the programme if the number of affected engines expands, we note the TEN is only around 140 of the total 610 Trent 1000 engines in service."
Sainsbury edged lower after Kantar grocery market survey data showed that Asda overtook it to become the second biggest UK supermarket by market share in the 12-weeks to the end of March as Sainsbury's sales dropped 1.8%.
Fraser McKevitt, consumer head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, said: "Despite being overtaken by Asda in main store sales, Sainsbury’s remains the biggest seller of food and drink out of the two retailers and these figures do not include Argos. Sainsbury’s premium ‘Taste the Difference’ line is still a bright spot, with sales rising 4.4% and the brand growing sales of alcohol, poultry and dairy products in particular."
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,400.29 1.13%
FTSE 100 - Risers
NMC Health (NMC) 2,440.00p 4.23%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,940.00p 3.38%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 630.00p 3.01%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,233.00p 2.90%
Prudential (PRU) 1,602.00p 2.89%
Informa (INF) 763.20p 2.72%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,034.00p 2.48%
Kingfisher (KGF) 240.60p 2.34%
SSE (SSE) 1,180.50p 2.21%
Ferguson (FERG) 5,070.00p 2.20%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,803.50p -1.93%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 905.60p -1.26%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 517.40p -0.77%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,157.00p -0.64%
Evraz (EVR) 636.80p -0.50%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 604.00p -0.26%
Sage Group (SGE) 705.40p -0.23%
Fresnillo (FRES) 859.49p -0.20%
Next (NXT) 5,630.00p -0.07%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 234.62p -0.04%