FTSE 100 movers: BT, Vodafone rally; Ocado in the red

London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 6,768.02 in afternoon trade on Wednesday as investors eyed the latest policy announcement from the US Federal Reserve.

Online supermarket Ocado was under the cosh ahead of a first-quarter trading update on Thursday.

BT and Vodafone rallied after the UK government auctioned a new tranche of 5G mobile network spectrum for £1.36bn.

EE, owned by BT, paid a total of £452m after it won 2x10 MHz of paired frequency spectrum in 700 MHz band for £280m, 20 MHz of supplementary downlink spectrum in 700 MHz band for £4m and 40 MHz in 3.6-3.8 GHz band for £168m.

Vodafone secured 40 MHz in 3.6-3.8 GHz for £176.4 m in the auction run by regulator Ofcom.

Rolls-Royce was boosted after JPMorgan Cazenove upgraded the engine maker to ‘neutral’ from ‘underweight’.

JPM said the approval of multiple vaccines means many investors are willing to value the stock on its medium-term ambitions. In addition, it noted the shares are now rising despite bad news such as the recent cash flow warnings in December and January and the large 2020 earnings miss.

"Whilst international airline capacity is still down circa 75% versus 2019, it is unlikely to get worse and so the direction of travel will most probably be one of slow improvement," JPM said. "RR’s shares have significantly underperformed peers since 2018 and this is attracting investors."

Standard Chartered gained after HSBC upgraded the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ and lifted the price target to 550p from 430p as it said it was increasingly optimism on future revenue growth. It said margin stability and improving loan trends underpin its view.

The company’s new 7%+ return on tangible equity 2023 target looks achievable, HSBC said, with upside thereafter. It lifted its 2021 and 2022 earnings per share estimates by 5.5% and 8.4%, respectively.

FTSE 100 - Risers

BT Group (BT.A) 152.10p 6.22%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 127.85p 4.07%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 503.40p 2.46%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 430.65p 1.86%
Relx plc (REL) 1,772.00p 1.78%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,558.00p 1.61%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 136.34p 1.35%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 188.20p 1.35%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,723.00p 1.23%
BP (BP.) 314.35p 1.00%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,101.00p -4.02%
Evraz (EVR) 541.40p -3.63%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,914.50p -3.11%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,284.00p -3.04%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,036.00p -2.69%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,240.00p -2.52%
Fresnillo (FRES) 943.00p -2.46%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,557.50p -2.38%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,150.00p -2.29%
Sage Group (SGE) 582.60p -2.28%