FTSE 100 movers: Miners and financials drive third successive uptick

The FTSE 100 index was higher for the third day of the week, led by miners and financials stocks.

Diversified miner Anglo American was the leader of the pack with an hour to go on Wednesday as it confirmed the sale of loss-making Rustenberg mining and concentrating operations to Sibanye Gold for at least ZAR4.5bn (£0.2bn). RBC Capital Markets said that while the financial impact of the sale of the Rustenberg mine may not be large, the deal is positive for sentiment and boosts management’s credibility.

On top of such streamlining, metals futures were in positive territory for a second successive session, which lifted fellow resources giants Glencore, for the third day in a row, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Glencore has received several upgrades from analysts since announcing its cost cutting plans on Monday, including from JP Morgan on Tuesday.

Hargreaves Lansdown, the pensions and investment group, was a high riser as it boosted its dividend despite a 5% drop in full-year operating profits. Broker Numis also upgraded the stock to ‘add’ and lifted its price target to 1,280p following the company’s results, which it said were in line with forecasts in terms of profit, but ahead in terms of the 18% growth in assets under management.

Prudential and Standard Chartered, which both have varying but strong degrees of focus on Asia, continued their strong runs this week, after sentiment towards the sector and emerging markets improved somewhat.

Ahead of its results on Thursday, Morrisons was lifted by anticipation of an encouraging strategic update from new chief executive David Potts, who took the reins in March this year. The news that the supermarket group had sold its convenience store estate for less than it hoped was water off a duck's back. On the results, UBS said "the focus of the day is likely to be strategy over numbers".

GlaxoSmithKline was one of the index's few fallers as tests of its Breo Ellipta inhaler for the treatment of chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease showed that it failed to prolong the life of patients.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Anglo American (AAL) 757.00p +7.54%
Glencore (GLEN) 146.15p +6.21%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,178.00p +5.65%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,145.00p +5.34%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,416.00p +4.61%
Prudential (PRU) 1,446.00p +4.37%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 751.50p +4.20%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,354.00p +4.07%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 176.30p +3.71%
Schroders (SDR) 2,935.00p +3.64%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
easyJet (EZJ) 1,767.00p -1.45%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,316.50p -0.94%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,480.00p -0.47%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,277.00p -0.23%