FTSE 100 movers: Kingfisher surges on upgrade, miners and oil stocks lower

UK stocks dipped on Thursday afternoon amid mixed messages coming out about progress in Greece and volatile sovereign debt markets.

Sector-wise, miners, utilities and transport stocks provided the biggest drag, offsetting decent performances from retailers and property stocks.

As of 14:30 BST, the FTSE 100 was trading 1% lower at 6,881.9 points.

Kingfisher topped the risers following an upgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch to 'neutral' from 'underperform'.

Low-cost airline easyJet surged after revealing that it carried nearly 6.5m passengers last month, up 7.2% from 6.05m in May 2014. The load factor, which is a gauge of how many seats were actually occupied by passengers on flights, rose 2.2 percentage points to 91.6% from May 2014.

Platinum and palladium refiner Johnson Matthey was in the red despite posting a 22% rise in fiscal 2015 pre-tax profit to £495.8m, boosted by the £69.7m sale of the gold and silver refining business in March 2015. A boost in demand for autocatalysts for motor vehicles came as a result of tighter European emissions legislation, but the outlook for metal markets remained cautious.

Royal Mail dipped as Chancellor George Osborne confirmed the government would sell its remaining 30% stake in the postal delivery firm to help pay down the deficit.

National Grid and WPP Group plunged as both traded without their dividend attractions.

Miners and oil stocks including Fresnillo, Randgold Resources, Anglo American, Glencore and Antofagasta were trading lower.

Risers
Kingfisher (KGF) 377.20p +2.47%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,601.00p +1.20%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 179.90p +1.01%
British Land Company (BLND) 836.00p +0.84%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 251.70p +0.76%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 478.40p +0.76%
Tesco (TSCO) 211.60p +0.57%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 266.10p +0.45%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,141.00p +0.44%
Meggitt (MGGT) 505.00p +0.40%

Fallers
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,349.00p -4.75%
National Grid (NG.) 874.20p -4.51%
WPP (WPP) 1,505.00p -3.46%
Royal Mail (RMG) 508.50p -3.33%
Glencore (GLEN) 281.15p -2.72%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,626.00p -2.65%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 529.50p -2.58%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,021.00p -2.58%
Fresnillo (FRES) 727.50p -2.55%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 742.50p -2.30%