FTSE 100 movers: G4S sitting pretty again; housebuilders slump
London's FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 7,508.95 in afternoon trade as Brexit talks got underway in Brussels.
Security services company G4S was the standout gainer as it made its way back into the top-flight index, with the shares having enjoyed a healthy rise following its demotion to the FTSE 250 in December 2015 after several botched contracts.
Retailers Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer were in the black, recovering from a slump at the end of last week on news of Amazon's $13.7bn deal to buy Whole Foods Market.
Heating and plumbing products distributor Wolseley was higher ahead of its third quarter update on Tuesday. UBS said: "We expect group Q3 like-for-like revenue growth of 4.5%, driven by the US +6%. This is broadly consistent with the LFL growth Wolseley saw up to March of 4.5% for the group and 5.5% for the US, with only April missing for the quarterly performance."
Going the other way, InterContinental Hotels was hit by a downgrade to 'neutral' from 'outperform'' at Credit Suisse, mostly on valuation grounds. It highlighted a 40% re-rating since early 2016 and said that otherwise, it sees a balanced backdrop of positive and negative risks for "one of the highest quality companies we cover".
Housebuilders Hammerson, British Land and Land Securities were under the cosh as the latest research from Rightmove revealed that asking prices for houses in the UK are being cut at the sharpest rate in over four years amid political and economic uncertainty, with London and the South East underperforming the rest of the UK.
The price of residential property coming to market in June dropped 0.4% compared to May, with the year-on-year annual rate of price increase slowing to 1.8%, the lowest since April 2013. It was the first time sales had fallen month-on-month in June since 2009, the height of the credit crunch.
Risers
G4S (GFS) 337.00p 4.92%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 258.80p 2.58%
Wolseley (WOS) 4,870.00p 2.20%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 352.30p 2.06%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 925.50p 1.98%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 181.70p 1.96%
Anglo American (AAL) 985.30p 1.86%
Glencore (GLEN) 284.20p 1.59%
Next (NXT) 4,156.00p 1.54%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 253.50p 1.52%
Fallers
Mediclinic International (MDC) 779.00p -1.95%
Hammerson (HMSO) 592.00p -1.66%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 4,376.00p -1.31%
Old Mutual (OML) 199.50p -1.19%
British Land Company (BLND) 625.50p -1.03%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,055.00p -0.98%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,057.00p -0.94%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 366.80p -0.86%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,534.00p -0.84%
3i Group (III) 904.50p -0.77%