FTSE 100 movers: Miners rally but pharmas slip

London's FTSE 100 was up 1.2% to 6,793.45 in afternoon trade.

Miners were the best performers as metals prices gained, with Anglo American, Glencore, Fresnillo, BHP Billion and Rio Tinto all firmly higher.

Glencore also benefited from an upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’ by Credit Suisse. The bank said that since it downgraded the stock back in July, the sector has been range-bound but the lift in coal prices gives it more confidence in the deleveraging and free cash flow generation of Glencore heading into 2017.

“While there is still further to go on deleveraging the bulk of the debt reduction has been delivered and we think this puts a restart of the dividend insight within the next six months.”

Elsewhere, supermarket retailer Wm Morrison was on the front foot after Deutsche Bank lifted its rating on the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ and upped the price target to 200p from 165p following the company’s better-than-expected first-half results last week.

The bank said the numbers were better than forecasts on almost all important metrics, with like-for-like sales growth, reported profit, the outlook and the cash performance all ahead.

DB said the target price increase was down to the better-than-expected cash performance, as it includes £200m for working capital and £45m for the proceeds from the disposal of Fresh Direct.

On the downside, pharmaceutical stocks AstraZeneca and Shire slipped. The defensive stocks had been stronger last week in a weaker London market, but with a risk-on tone on Monday, they slipped back.

Risers

Anglo American (AAL) 864.50p 6.15%
Glencore (GLEN) 194.35p 5.05%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,676.00p 3.71%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,022.00p 3.64%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 627.80p 3.41%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,357.00p 3.40%
Tesco (TSCO) 174.90p 3.31%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,039.00p 2.67%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 216.20p 2.17%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 578.70p 2.12%

Fallers

AstraZeneca (AZN) 5,062.00p -0.65%
Shire Plc (SHP) 5,067.00p -0.55%
Informa (INF) 728.00p -0.48%
Intu Properties (INTU) 285.90p -0.28%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 418.00p -0.21%
Royal Mail (RMG) 516.00p -0.10%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 3,238.00p -0.09%
SABMiller (SAB) 4,436.50p -0.08%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,067.00p -0.00%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,495.00p 0.09%