FTSE 100 movers: Miners rally; Auto Trader hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 8,425.53 in afternoon trade on Friday.

Miners Rio Tinto, Anglo American and Antofagasta all rose amid firmer copper prices.

Sage Group was also in the black, having tumbled on Thursday as it trimmed revenue guidance.

BT Group was on the rise again, having gained a day earlier as investors welcomed plans to save £3bn of costs a year by the end of the decade.

Unilever in the black as it announced the start of its €1.5bn share buyback programme, kicking off the first tranche of up to €850m worth of shares.

Going the other way, Auto Trader was under the cosh after Morgan Stanley downgraded the shares to ‘underweight’ from ‘equalweight’ and cut the price target to 600p from 625p.

Morgan Stanley said it sees market/consensus expectations as skewing optimistic on near-term Deal Builder monetisation, while the market seems much more relaxed above the competitive threat from Google in cars than that from CoStar in real estate.

"As a result, AUTO now trades at a premium to Rightmove, which we do not see as warranted given similar revenue/EPS growth trends," it said.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 609.00p 2.35%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,752.00p 1.82%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,669.00p 1.52%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,312.00p 1.23%
Tesco (TSCO) 309.60p 0.95%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 178.60p 0.93%
Sage Group (SGE) 1,094.50p 0.92%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,107.00p 0.91%
BT Group (BT.A) 133.75p 0.87%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,315.00p 0.82%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,798.00p -3.94%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 725.60p -3.89%
Entain (ENT) 738.20p -3.40%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 9,260.00p -3.34%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 16,135.00p -2.77%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 672.50p -2.54%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 122.45p -2.39%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 351.90p -2.25%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,115.00p -2.19%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) 2,242.00p -1.84%