FTSE 100 movers: Airtel Africa surges; HSBC heads lower

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,330.31 in afternoon trade on Monday.

Airtel Africa jumped to the top of the index as it reported a rise in half-year revenues and said it expects to deliver an improved EBITDA margin in FY24 versus a year earlier.

Education publisher Pearson was in the black as it lifted its profit guidance for the full year by £20m despite a slowdown in revenue growth in the third quarter.

Rightmove got a boost after Berenberg upgraded the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ as it said the selloff since the OnTheMarket/CoStar deal was announced was overdone.

The bank noted that Rightmove has traded down 17% since OnTheMarket announced on 18 October that it had agreed to be taken over by US commercial real estate information group CoStar in a £99m deal.

"“We think this is an overreaction, so we upgrade our rating to a buy as we retain our conviction that Rightmove will remain the number one property portal in the UK and will be largely unaffected by the new market dynamic," it said.

HSBC fell after it posted a smaller-than-expected jump in third-quarter profits and announced a $3bn share buyback. In the three months to the end of September, pre-tax profit rose to $7.7bn from $3.2bn in the same period a year earlier, falling short of consensus expectations of $8.1bn.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Airtel Africa (AAF) 117.60p 7.10%
Pearson (PSON) 942.60p 2.55%
St James's Place (STJ) 633.20p 2.39%
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,109.50p 2.35%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,149.00p 2.24%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,605.00p 2.23%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 614.80p 2.19%
Prudential (PRU) 861.60p 2.18%
Rightmove (RMV) 489.40p 2.13%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 144.95p 2.04%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 470.30p -2.59%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 586.90p -2.35%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 180.80p -0.66%
3i Group (III) 1,958.50p -0.51%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 213.50p -0.47%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 8,120.00p -0.25%
Croda International (CRDA) 4,271.00p -0.16%
BP (BP.) 529.90p -0.11%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 642.60p -0.03%
RS Group (RS1) 677.60p 0.03%