FTSE 100 movers: Housebuilders lead market higher

The FTSE 100 was set to turn things around on Wednesday, with the blue chip market up 48.39 points (0.86%) to 5,680.58 by mid-afternoon.

Housebuilders were on the rise, including Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley Group Holdings and Barratt Developments, after sector peer Bellway reported strong growth in first half housing completions, saying it remains on target to deliver a 10% rise in full year volumes.

In a trading update for the six months to the end of January, it said housing completions were up 11.6% from 2015 to 4,188. Meanwhile, the average selling price rose 17% to a record £257,000, mainly thanks to the completion of a number of high value London apartments, and a smaller proportion of lower value social housing completions.

Bellway said the average selling price for the full financial year is expected to show a 10% increase, in line with previous guidance, as ongoing investment in higher value locations throughout the country provides a boost. The housebuilder said its strong trading performance should lead to a rise in housing revenue of over 30% in the half year, which should exceed £1.08bn, compared with £823.4m in 2015.

Investors were pleased with Tesco after it bought the remaining stake in coffee chain Harris & Hoole it did not already own.

When the supermarket picked up a 49% stake in the artisan coffee business three years ago, the deal included an option to buy the rest. A spokesman for Tesco said: “We can confirm we have acquired full ownership of Harris & Hoole. We have worked successfully with Harris & Hoole since investing in the business three years ago and will continue to partner with the management board in the future.”

Tesco bought out founders Andrew, Nick and Laura Tolley, although it did not disclose any financial details of the transaction. For the year ending 1 March 2015, Harris & Hoole – which has over 40 outlets, including 29 in Tesco stores – posted a pre-tax loss of £25.6m compared to £12.8m the previous year.

Meanwhile Hikma Pharmaceuticals led the fallers after the company said the cash consideration for its takeover of Roxane Laboratories would be almost halved off the back of significantly lower revenue projections.

It had published a prospectus on 22 January in relation to the acquisition, but said it had now received new information on the financial performance of Roxane in 2015. Latest revenue projection was revised down to circa $650m (£449.1m). As a result, Hikma and BI agreed certain changes to the terms of the acquisition, the company confirmed.

It would now pay gross cash consideration of $647m, instead of the previously-announced $1.18bn. Hikma would still issue an unchanged 40m consideration shares. "Following further due diligence into the new information provided by BI, Hikma now expects that Roxane's unaudited revenue for 2015 was lower than had previously been anticipated, due to higher than expected rebates", the company's board confirmed in a statement.

ARM Holdings also took a hit despite posting a strong set of full year results and saying it was confident of meeting forecasts for 2016 as demand for its microchip technology continues to grow.

Despite the profit warning from smaller peer Imagination Technologies earlier this week, ARM's fourth quarter saw a 19% increase in revenue to £269.1m, ahead of consensus forecasts, helping to lift profits 17% to £138.7m. For the full year this meant revenue rose 22% to £968.3m, beating consensus forecasts of £962m, with profit before tax up 24% to £511m and earnings per share up 25% to 30.2p.

A 25% increase in the final dividend to 5.63p per share, means the total payment is also up 25% to 8.78p, while management also plans to continue its small share buyback programme. Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets said profits were a fraction ahead of consensus and growing faster than revenues. "What’s not to like? Maybe management’s confidence in the semi-conductor industry is being questioned after Apple’s warning on China stress and rival Imagination Technology’s profits warning earlier this week," he suggested.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Worldpay Group (WI) (WPG) 277.80p 5.31%
Prudential (PRU) 1,182.00p 4.97%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 506.50p 4.74%
Tesco (TSCO) 181.50p 4.43%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 176.60p 4.00%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,210.00p 3.88%
Schroders (SDR) 2,448.00p 3.47%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 437.50p 3.45%
DCC (DCC) 5,000.00p 3.41%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 565.50p 3.29%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,857.00p -6.92%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 892.50p -5.05%
Glencore (GLEN) 90.50p -4.17%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,695.00p -3.56%
Anglo American (AAL) 322.15p -3.49%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 396.70p -3.46%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 648.20p -2.69%
Fresnillo (FRES) 831.00p -2.58%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 804.50p -2.48%
BP (BP.) 327.60p -2.05%