FTSE 100 movers: JD Sports shoots higher; Aviva hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.5% at 7,420.87 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.

JD Sports shot to the top of the index after US peer Foot Locker beat earnings expectations and guided to better-than-estimated sales in the pivotal fourth quarter.

The American sportswear and footwear giant predicted just a 2-4% sales decline in fourth-quarter sales on the back of a strong Thanksgiving week period, with comparable sales expected to fall by 7-9%, better than the 10.5% drop expected by the market.

Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Endeavour both shone as gold prices gained.

Ocado advanced as chairman Rick Haythornthwaite bought 9,500 ordinary shares in the company for 561p per share, paying about £53,000.

Asia-focused HSBC and Standard Chartered were under the cosh, while Aviva was hit by by a downgrade to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ at Deutsche Bank.

Prudential was also in the red after Deutsche cut its price target on the shares to 1,420p to 1,400p.

FTSE 100 - Risers

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 159.60p 7.26%
Fresnillo (FRES) 588.60p 5.30%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 592.60p 4.51%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 266.10p 3.02%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 1,851.00p 2.95%
Rightmove (RMV) 541.20p 2.58%
M&G (MNG) 209.50p 2.29%
Diploma (DPLM) 3,368.00p 1.51%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,048.00p 1.49%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 43.05p 1.41%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Entain (ENT) 813.80p -2.47%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 432.20p -2.37%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 593.00p -2.34%
Aviva (AV.) 415.10p -2.24%
Prudential (PRU) 866.00p -2.19%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 648.80p -2.02%
Beazley (BEZ) 547.00p -1.71%
Compass Group (CPG) 2,038.00p -1.59%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,128.00p -1.54%
Centrica (CNA) 146.90p -1.51%