FTSE 100 movers: Lloyds leads the way; miners down in the dumps

Fat profits from Lloyds Bank provided most of the meat for the Footsie on Wednesday as investors feasted on the first good news from the sector in some time.

The stock led the risers after the firm reported it's best results in a decade, churning out profits of £4.2bn from £1.6bn in 2015 as it announced a special 0.5p-a-share dividend in addition to the total ordinary dividend of 2.55p

Underlying profits came in at £7.9bn, slightly lower than £8.1bn in the previous year. Total income was £17.5bn compared with £17.6bn in 2016.

Conduct charges of £2.1bn include a further £1bn provision for PPI, which was down from last year´s £4bn.

HSBC returned to favour as investors did some bargain hunting after they stuck the fork in on the back of Tuesday's poor results.

Housebuilder Barratt Developments shares were up, as the firm reported half-year completions outside of London as being at their highest level for nine years.

The company said London completions were in line with the planned build programme, with significant uplift expected on wholly owned sites in the second half. Total completions stood at 7,180 plots, down 5.8%, with total revenue dipping 3.2% to £1.82bn.

Barratt’s gross margin for the period improved 2.1 percentage points year-on-year to 20.7%, while its profit from operations was up 7.4% at £324m.

Miners failed to whet the appetite, with BHP down after reporting encouraging profits, but missing consensus forecasts. Anglo American and Antofagasta were also off the menu on weaker metals prices.

InterContinental Hotels Group failed to join the buying buffet after Barclays cut its rating of the Holiday Inn owner to ‘equal weight’ from ‘overweight’ and left its price target unchanged at 4,000p in light of recent US business confidence data.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,287.06 0.17%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,732.69 -0.21%
techMARK (TASX) 3,356.40 -0.04%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 69.32p 3.82%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 751.50p 2.59%
Capita (CPI) 546.50p 2.34%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 524.50p 1.94%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 306.80p 1.89%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 7,193.00p 1.67%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 3,816.50p 1.66%
Royal Mail (RMG) 416.60p 1.58%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 328.50p 1.45%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 675.20p 1.43%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Anglo American (AAL) 1,303.50p -3.48%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,369.50p -2.56%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 848.00p -2.36%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 3,796.00p -2.14%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,580.00p -1.80%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,947.00p -1.62%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 743.50p -1.39%
ITV (ITV) 200.60p -1.33%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,191.00p -1.13%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,843.00p -1.07%