FTSE 100 movers: GVC gains on results; RBS under pressure

London's FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 7,177.71 in afternoon trade on Tuesday, with sterling under pressure amid worries about Brexit ahead of the upcoming meaningful vote.

GVC Holdings was sitting pretty at the top of the leader board as the sports betting and gaming group reported underlying profits at the top end of its full-year guidance and said it got off to a strong start in 2019 as it extracted benefits from its acquisition of Ladbrokes Coral.

Vodafone was also on the front foot after confirming that it is aiming to raise roughly €4bn from convertible securities to fund the acquisition of Liberty Global's assets in Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania.

On the downside, RBS was the biggest loser following a report that it and Bank of America have been sued by investors in the US over their alleged roles in a conspiracy among eight banks to rig prices in the European government bond market.

Product testing and inspection group Intertek saw its shares drop even as it posted a jump in 2018 profit as revenue rose amid growing demand, with some traders pointing to profit taking,.

Pre-tax profit rose 4% at actual currency rates, or 8.3% at constant rates during the year to £456.5m on revenue of £2.80bn, up1.2% or 4.7% at constant currency. Organic revenue growth was 3.7%.

Operating profit increased 3% to £481.8m and the dividend per share was boosted by 39% to 99.1p.

Sainsbury's retreated as figures from Kantar Worldpanel revealed that sales at the supermarket fell 1.0% in the 12 weeks to 24 February, reducing its market share to 15.7% as the group battles to save its merger with Asda.

Ocado was also weaker even as the data showed a 3.4% increase in sales and unchanged market share of 1.2%.

FTSE 100 - Risers

GVC Holdings (GVC) 679.50p 4.38%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 133.76p 1.83%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,907.56p 1.81%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,065.00p 1.64%
Halma (HLMA) 1,607.00p 1.39%
Fresnillo (FRES) 810.00p 1.38%
BT Group (BT.A) 216.80p 1.33%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,975.00p 1.29%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,447.00p 1.28%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,723.50p 1.17%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 258.30p -3.00%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 275.70p -2.61%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 5,058.00p -2.51%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,770.50p -2.51%
ITV (ITV) 134.60p -2.11%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,215.50p -1.54%
Pearson (PSON) 831.20p -1.38%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 231.20p -1.07%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,038.00p -0.81%
Kingfisher (KGF) 246.50p -0.80%