FTSE 100 movers: British Land, Landsec hit by downgrades

London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.3% at 7,175.79 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Land Securities and British Land were under the cosh after rating downgrades at RBC Capital.

The bank cut British Land to ‘underperform’ from ‘sector perform’ and slashed the price target to 375p from 475p.

"Our more cautious view of London office and UK retail property markets negatively impacts our forecasts for British Land," it said.

"Furthermore, we believe a more negative macro scenario appears slightly at odds with management’s view of their markets, increasing the potential negative impact to British Land's returns."

Landsec was cut to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform’ and the target price reduced to 675p from 950p.

RBC said Landsec has made good progress in starting to implement its CEO's new strategy, but that a deterioration in the macro environment will temporarily slow further progress.

On the upside, SSE and Centrica both rose again after the government said on Monday that it would not be extending the windfall tax to electricity producers.

United Utilities was also in the black after agreeing to sell its portfolio of renewable energy assets in a £100m deal.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Admiral Group (ADM) 2,360.00p 1.90%
SSE (SSE) 1,779.00p 1.89%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,160.00p 1.71%
BAE Systems (BA.) 824.80p 1.58%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,048.50p 1.45%
Centrica (CNA) 84.02p 1.45%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,834.00p 1.32%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,812.50p 1.31%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,672.00p 1.27%
Sage Group (SGE) 670.60p 1.18%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Land Securities Group (LAND) 650.20p -3.67%
British Land Company (BLND) 446.40p -3.54%
Entain (ENT) 1,040.00p -3.30%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 7,504.00p -3.20%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 570.20p -2.56%
Prudential (PRU) 987.00p -2.28%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 3,552.00p -2.26%
Barclays (BARC) 147.88p -2.07%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 146.40p -2.01%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 764.20p -1.47%