FTSE 100 movers: Housebuilders boosted by upgrades; Imperial Brands falls
Updated : 15:24
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 7,831.92 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Luxury brand Burberry was among the top performers following first-quarter sales figures from LVMH.
Housebuilders Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Berkeley all gained after rating upgrades from HSBC.
The bank upgraded Barratt, Bellway, Crest Nicholson, Persimmon, Redrow and Taylor Wimpey to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’. Their target prices were lifted to 570p from 390p, 2,700p from 2,030p, 270p from 230p, 1,550p from 1,410p, 670p from 500p, 150p from 105p, respectively.
It upgraded Berkeley to ‘hold’ from ‘reduce’ and the target price to 4,000p from 3,000p. Finally, it reiterated its ‘buy’ rating on Vistry and hiked the price target to 1,060p from 900p.
"We now have greater visibility about the shape of the current housing market downturn for the housebuilders’ profits and cash flows and their recovery from it, which we believe to be more than priced-in to share prices," HSBC said.
On the downside, Persimmon, Lloyds and Unite fell as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.
Tobacco company Imperial Brands also lost ground despite saying it was on track to deliver earnings in line with expectations and low single-digit constant currency net revenue growth.