FTSE 100 movers: Housebuilders, Bunzl rally

London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.4% at 7,441.15 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Housebuilders were on the rise as it emerged that housing secretary Michael Gove is planning to ease planning rules related to waterway pollution. Persimmon, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey all jumped.

Bunzl was also in the black after the distribution specialist upgraded guidance for annual adjusted operating profits as it reported a rise in half-year earnings.

The company reported interim pre-tax profit of £317m, up 6.9%, with revenue up 4.5% to £5.9bn.

"Given performance year to date, we upgrade our 2023 adjusted operating profit guidance, driven by a meaningful increase in operating margin expectations," it said.

"We now expect adjusted operating profit to be moderately higher than in 2022 at constant exchange rates, with operating margin remaining strong and moderately higher than that achieved in the prior year."

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Sometimes boring can be beautiful as far as investors are concerned. There’s certainly nothing racy or exciting about Bunzl as a business - it distributes a range of non-food consumable products to businesses, from lids and cups for coffee shops, to hand gels and towels for medical workers.

"These kind of background items are simple but essential parts of doing business for Bunzl’s client base and its track record of delivery means it retains customers and derives reliable and repeatable revenue from them.

"Bunzl has consistently raised its dividend over many years and the company has today boosted earnings guidance amid encouraging signs that inflationary pressures in its own cost base are starting to ease.

"The firm has also been the master of its own destiny through initiatives like driving higher sales of its own branded goods."

FTSE 100 - Risers

Persimmon (PSN) 1,032.00p 4.56%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 770.80p 3.91%
Prudential (PRU) 983.80p 3.91%
Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 3,270.00p 3.88%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 304.50p 3.85%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 447.20p 3.69%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,812.00p 3.23%
DCC (CDI) (DCC) 4,330.00p 3.22%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 112.80p 3.20%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 1,591.00p 3.11%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 560.80p -1.13%
Haleon (HLN) 328.40p 0.20%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,208.00p 0.32%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 588.60p 0.41%
Compass Group (CPG) 2,029.00p 0.50%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 4,531.00p 0.51%
National Grid (NG.) 982.80p 0.51%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,008.00p 0.53%
Centrica (CNA) 147.50p 0.55%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,066.00p 0.73%