FTSE 100 movers: Fresnillo shines on upgrade; Vodafone retreats on update

London's FTSE 100 was up 0.1% to 6,827.97 in afternoon trade on Friday, with miners on the rise.

Fresnillo shone as UBS upgraded its stance on the precious metals miner to 'buy' from 'neutral' and lifted the price target to 1,100p from 900p, arguing that Mexican and operational risks are stabilising.

"With the risk versus reward for gold/silver prices skewed to the upside, valuation undemanding (versus Fresnillo history) and the risk of negative stock specific headwinds materially lower, we believe the risk versus reward is attractive," the bank said.

Miners were the standout gainers as copper price rose, while consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser was trading up, bouncing back from losses in the previous session on the back of a downgrade to 'underperform' at Jefferies.

On the downside, Vodafone retreated despite saying it managed to keep underlying growth positive in the third quarter as it stemmed some of the customer losses in Italy and Spain.

Total service revenues were down 0.8%, worse than analyst expectations for a decline of 0.7%, mostly due to a misfiring price promotion at South Africa's Vodacom that had been revealed a day earlier.

The shares are trading close to a 10-year low amid concerns over the dividend. CMC Markets' Michael Hewson noted the size of its dividend, currently yielding around 9%, was not fully covered by profits. This means that the company is having to fund the payout by way of borrowing, he said.

"A dividend cover of less than 1 means that profits aren’t sufficient to cover the payout to shareholders, something that isn’t sustainable over time."

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 928.40p 4.08%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,194.00p 3.98%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,300.00p 3.63%
Glencore (GLEN) 297.20p 3.14%
CRH (CRH) 2,236.00p 2.90%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,228.50p 2.76%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,841.30p 2.73%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 818.60p 2.61%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,852.00p 2.46%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,713.00p 2.15%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Vodafone Group (VOD) 139.36p -3.25%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 654.50p -2.53%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,303.00p -1.84%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,482.00p -1.79%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,791.00p -1.73%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,947.00p -1.47%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,098.00p -1.27%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,882.00p -1.13%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 812.60p -1.12%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 6,265.00p -1.10%