FTSE 100 movers: Defensives wanted amid hawkish Fed comments

Defensive issues were wanted on Friday after US Federal Reserve President, Jerome Powell, told an audience the night before that a 50 basis point interest rate hike at the 4 May policy meeting was in play.

Powell, also said that in his view it was "appropriate to move a little more quickly".

Following his remarks, Fed funds futures were completely pricing in a 50bp hike on 15 June, followed by a 75bp move on 15 June and 93.3% odds of a further 50bp move on 27 July.

The last time that the Fed hiked rates by 75bp in a single move was in 1994.

In response, equity indices and longer-term government bond yields around the world were both lower on Friday.

But defensives such as National Grid, Unilever, Imperial Brands, SSE or Severn Trent were all sought out.

BAE Systems was also in the black on account of the still worrisome headlines coming out of Ukraine.

B&M European Value Retail on the other hand was caught in a downdraft after its boss, Simon Arora, announced that he was planning to leave the firm in 2023.

Anglo American too was unloved after analysts at Berenberg lowered their target price on the miner from 4,300.0p to 4,000.0p.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,539.07 -1.17%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Rentokil Initial (RTO) 535.60p 2.21%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,154.00p 1.82%
Avast (AVST) 557.00p 1.64%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 2,028.00p 0.80%
National Grid (NG.) 1,171.50p 0.77%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,539.50p 0.70%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,538.00p 0.67%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,098.00p 0.59%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,056.00p 0.57%
Tesco (TSCO) 266.30p 0.45%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 516.80p -6.04%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,468.50p -5.72%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,852.00p -4.81%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 92.23p -4.52%
Kingfisher (KGF) 256.70p -4.39%
Schroders (SDR) 3,024.00p -4.36%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,052.50p -3.44%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,670.00p -3.05%
Abrdn (ABDN) 193.90p -3.05%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 124.75p -3.03%