FTSE 100 movers: Barratt rallies on results; Ocado hit by blaze

London's FTSE 100 was flat at 7,176.71 in afternoon trade on Wednesday following impressive gains in the previous session.

Barratt Developments was the top gainer after saying it grew profits 19% in the first half of its trading year as it was in a strong position in spite of the uncertainty around Brexit.

The housebuilder completed 7,622 homes during the six months to 31 December, a 4% increase on the year before, increasing revenue 7% to £2.1bn and pre-tax profit to £408m from £355m a year ago.

CRH was also a high riser as it emerged that Stockholm-based activist investor Cevian Capital has built a stake in the building materials group.

Vodafone gained ground as Bank of America Merrill Lynch upped the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral', saying that there is "light at the end of the tunnel" as headwinds such as currency depreciation and high spectrum costs are now passing and increasingly baked into forecasts.

BP pushed higher for the second day in a row following well-received results on Tuesday.

On the downside, Ocado shares retreated as it revealed that a fire at its Andover warehouse - which accounts for around 10% of its total capacity - was still burning and had resulted in widespread damage.

Travel operator Tui was in the red as HSBC cut its recommendation on the stock to 'hold' from 'buy' and reduced the price target to 1,320p from 1,720p.

Centrica fell on the back of a downgrade to 'underperform' from 'outperform' and a target price cut to 130p from 185p from RBC Capital Markets.

"We expect that a dividend cut will come, and despite recent underperformance we still see CNA as expensive relative to peers. With EPS estimates lowered by around 20%, and sitting 10-15% below consensus in 2019 & 2020 we double downgrade," it said.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Barratt Developments (BDEV) 562.40p 2.93%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 529.40p 2.36%
CRH (CRH) 2,353.00p 2.17%
Tesco (TSCO) 229.95p 1.88%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,723.50p 1.32%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 142.72p 1.18%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 249.45p 0.99%
Evraz (EVR) 518.80p 0.86%
Aviva (AV.) 425.70p 0.83%
BP (BP.) 551.50p 0.82%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 955.80p -7.56%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,175.50p -2.93%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 444.70p -2.22%
Centrica (CNA) 137.85p -1.92%
Rightmove (RMV) 471.75p -1.75%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 879.23p -1.72%
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 254.70p -1.57%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,868.00p -1.54%
WPP (WPP) 869.00p -1.47%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,709.80p -1.45%