FTSE 100 movers: Investors get appetite for ABF; miners under cosh

Associated British Foods rallied and led the FTSE 100 risers after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the stock to ‘outperform’ from ‘sector perform’ and lifted the price target to 3,400p from 2,800p.

Mining stocks were under the cosh as gold and silver prices dropped with Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Fresnillo among the biggest fallers.

“The devaluation of gold, silver, copper and iron ore in the wake of Friday’s dollar rally is expected to provide a drag for days to come, with only crude prices remaining surprisingly resilient amid something of a bloodbath for commodity stocks,” said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG.

BHP Billiton suffered a double blow as it reported that a report it commissioned into the dam disaster at its Samarco joint venture in Brazil last year was due to a poorly designed structure that had allowed water to seep into its infrastructure and left sand inside the dam “loose, uncompacted and saturated”.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,845.39 0.11%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Associated British Foods (ABF) 3,035.00p 2.88%
CRH (CRH) 2,597.00p 2.24%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,282.00p 2.15%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 558.10p 2.05%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 634.30p 1.83%
Barclays (BARC) 169.00p 1.81%
3i Group (III) 623.50p 1.71%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 58.88p 1.50%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,117.00p 1.45%
Standard Life (SL.) 358.50p 1.36%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 516.50p -4.62%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,723.00p -3.74%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,380.00p -3.55%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,420.00p -3.32%
Anglo American (AAL) 833.10p -2.96%
Glencore (GLEN) 179.70p -2.86%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,054.50p -2.36%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 9,450.00p -1.92%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,852.00p -1.65%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 161.70p -1.52%