FTSE 100 movers: Miners rally; BP and Shell gush lower
London’s FTSE 100 was flat at 7,940.44 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Miners were on the front foot after encouraging China services data, with Rio Tinto, Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American all up.
BA and Iberia owner IAG flew higher after well-received results from Lufthansa.
Educational publisher Pearson fell despite reporting a better-than-expected rise in annual profits driven by revenue growth and cost savings and saying it would grow sales by low to mid-single digits this year.
Property portal Rightmove also lost ground after it posted a rise in full-year operating profit, pointing to "resilient traffic despite a significantly less frenetic property market than 2021".
In the year to the end of December 2022, operating profit was up 7% at £241.3m, with revenues 9% higher at £332.6m.
Rightmove said a total of 16.3bn minutes were spent on the platform during the year, down from 18.3bn in 2021 but still 34% higher than the pre-pandemic record of 2019.
Admiral was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ at Citi, which turned more cautious on UK motor insurance.
BP and Shell gushed lower as oil prices slid after a Wall Street Journal report suggested that the United Arab Emirates is considering leaving the Opec cartel of oil producing countries.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 552.00p 4.82%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 155.24p 2.64%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,610.00p 2.51%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 6,166.00p 2.46%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,659.50p 2.38%
Glencore (GLEN) 523.00p 2.35%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,051.50p 2.09%
BT Group (BT.A) 144.45p 2.08%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 5,698.00p 1.97%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,256.50p 1.82%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Pearson (PSON) 870.40p -5.66%
Rightmove (RMV) 546.40p -3.09%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,091.00p -2.79%
BP (BP.) 548.80p -2.21%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 779.50p -2.07%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,099.50p -1.83%
Shell (SHEL) 2,560.50p -1.69%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,995.50p -1.41%
BAE Systems (BA.) 907.20p -1.35%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,630.00p -1.28%