FTSE 100 movers: Banks rally but miners lose ground

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% to 6,750.17 in afternoon trade as investors continued to mull over the implications of the Italian referendum and PM Renzi’s resignation.

Banks were the standout gainers as they bounced back from the fallout from the Italian referendum, with HSBC, RBS and Barclays at the top of the index.

HSBC got an extra boost from an upgrade to ‘equalweight’ from ‘underweight’ by Morgan Stanley.

MS said it had been ‘underweight’ on the stock due to concerns around risks to the dividend and what it saw as too optimistic revenue assumptions from consensus given the Asian growth outlook and US rate picture.

However, after a strong capital build in the third quarter, increased optimism around HSBC's APAC loan growth and a sharp increase in US interest rate expectations, it is now modelling earnings ahead of consensus for 2016-19e.

Equipment rental company Ashtead gained ground as it said group rental revenue in the six months to the end of October rose 28% to £1.45bn, or 13% at the underlying level if the £53m currency benefit is ignored.With group margins improving, underlying pre-tax profits rose 9% to £425.9m and earnings per share at the same rate to 56p.

Miners were in the back foot as copper prices declined, while Legal & General declined as Macquarie downgraded its stance on the stock to ‘underperform’.

Risers

HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 649.80p 3.69%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 204.90p 3.59%
Barclays (BARC) 223.35p 3.02%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 968.50p 2.05%
British Land Company (BLND) 598.00p 2.05%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 348.00p 1.75%
Capita (CPI) 548.00p 1.58%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,564.00p 1.56%
Intu Properties (INTU) 263.80p 1.46%
Centrica (CNA) 209.40p 1.45%

Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 1,196.00p -3.78%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,299.50p -2.99%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 235.30p -2.65%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,991.00p -2.06%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,180.00p -2.04%
Sage Group (SGE) 621.50p -1.82%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,037.00p -1.81%
DCC (DCC) 5,885.00p -1.67%
Glencore (GLEN) 285.60p -1.60%
Kingfisher (KGF) 344.00p -1.57%