FTSE 100 movers: L&G goes ex-div; Barclays rallies on results

London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 7,833.51 in afternoon trade on Thursday.

Legal & General, Fresnillo and Relx were in the red as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

WPP was on the back foot even as the advertising giant backed its full-year guidance and posted a rise in first-quarter sales. First-quarter revenue jumped 11.9% to £3.46bn, and was up 4.9% on a like-for-like basis. Revenue less pass-through costs ticked up 9.9% to £2.83bn, and was 2.9% higher on a LFL basis.

St James’s Place was also down after a first-quarter update.

Going the other way, Barclays was the standout gainer on the index after saying it was on track to meet full-year guidance, as it posted a 16% jump in pre-tax profits driven by growth across all its businesses.

The bank said group income rose 11% to £7.2bn, with pre-tax profit coming in at £2.6bn, generating a group return on tangible equity of 15% and earnings per share of 11.3p.

RS Group rallied after announcing the acquisition of Distrelec, a distributor of industrial and maintenance, repair and operations products for €365m (£323m).

Consumer goods giant Unilever gained as it said that underlying sales growth in the first quarter accelerated to 10.5%, versus analysts’ expectations of 7.5%.

Ladbrokes owner Entain was also higher after the government finally published its long-awaited gambling review.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Barclays (BARC) 161.00p +4.64%

International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 150.15p +3.05%

Entain (ENT) 1,479.50p +2.42%

RS Group (RS1) 916.60p +2.32%

BT Group (BT.A) 157.10p +2.18%

Halma (HLMA) 2,267.00p +1.89%

Unilever (ULVR) 4,446.00p +1.70%

Prudential (PRU) 1,137.00p +1.65%

B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 480.20p +1.42%

Vodafone Group (VOD) 95.45p +1.24%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Legal & General Group (LGEN) 236.60p -6.48%

St James's Place (STJ) 1,188.50p -4.11%

WPP (WPP) 933.00p -2.51%

Fresnillo (FRES) 717.20p -2.37%

Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,615.00p -2.02%

Relx plc (REL) 2,614.00p -1.95%

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,436.00p -1.81%

BP (BP.) 523.60p -1.78%

Shell (SHEL) 2,396.00p -1.56%

Frasers Group (FRAS) 779.00p -1.52%