FTSE 100 movers: Miners bounce back but utilities take a hit
London's FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 7,341.46 in afternoon trade, with heavily-weighted mining stocks providing most of the upside as they bounced back from heavy losses in the previous session.
Glencore, BHP Billiton, Anglo American, and Fresnillo were all in the black. IG analyst Chris Beauchamp said: "The embattled mining sector is finally seeing some support, despite little sign of a real turnaround in the ongoing fall in commodity prices."
Johnson Matthey, which refines platinum, gold and silver, was also trading higher.
On the downside, software company Micro Focus International tanked after saying that revenues at the HPE business it is buying were down around 10% in the quarter to the end of April.
Utilities Centrica and SSE were under the cosh as Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to introduce a cap on domestic energy prices that could see prices drop for around 17 million families if she gets re-elected on 8 June.
May is set to introduce the cap on standard variable tariffs, which around 70% of households are on. The cap would be set by energy regulator Ofgem every six months and would help close the gap between SVTs and the cheapest deals, potentially saving families on poor value tariffs as much as £100m, according to May.
RBS was also in the red on news it plans to cut nearly 250 jobs as part of an overhaul of its back office operations.
Risers
Glencore (GLEN) 292.15p 2.71%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 873.50p 2.70%
WPP (WPP) 1,721.00p 2.38%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,151.50p 2.36%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 771.00p 2.32%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,154.00p 2.10%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,029.00p 1.93%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,427.00p 1.86%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,203.00p 1.66%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 720.30p 1.58%
Fallers
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 2,492.00p -5.57%
Centrica (CNA) 199.90p -1.24%
GKN (GKN) 355.00p -1.11%
SSE (SSE) 1,439.00p -0.69%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,174.00p -0.68%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 265.00p -0.60%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 69.06p -0.56%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,073.00p -0.42%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,981.00p -0.40%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,407.00p -0.25%