FTSE 100 movers: Miners rally on higher metals prices but Hargreaves drops again

London's FTSE 100 was up 1.4% to 6,926.80 in afternoon trade on Wednesday, with miners benefiting from rising copper and iron ore prices.

British American Tobacco was the standout gainer, most likely still underpinned by an upgrade the day before to 'overweight' from 'neutral' by Piper Jaffray, while packaging company DS Smith was still riding high on the back of an upbeat JPMorgan note on Tuesday.

Miners were the best-performing sector, with Anglo, Glencore and BHP all up as copper and iron ore prices rallied.

Iron ore was up after the world's largest iron ore miner, Vale, announced a temporary 10% production cut and said it was decommissioning 10 dams following a mining disaster last week.

Goldman Sachs said that adding to an already tight market, the announcement is likely to drive iron ore prices "significantly" higher. As a result, the bank upped its 2019 iron ore price forecasts. It now has 3/6/12 month targets of $80/70/65 a tonne versus previous targets of $70/60/60.

Elsewhere, luxury fashion brand Burberry was on the front foot, boosted by a solid set of results from French peer LVMH, which reported another record year for sales in 2018.

TUI was also in the green as Morgan Stanley said the stock looks cheap, but Q1 will be poor so it was maintaining its 'neutral' rating.

Carnival gained ground following better-than-expected quarterly results from Royal Caribbean Cruises.

On the downside, Hargreaves Lansdown was down in the dumps again after posting a drop in net new business for the six months to the end of December 2018 a day earlier, and a decline in its assets under management.

FTSE 100 - Risers

British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,621.00p 4.42%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 170.35p 4.06%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,583.50p 3.56%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 345.80p 3.41%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,912.80p 3.32%
Glencore (GLEN) 306.50p 3.18%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,680.00p 3.08%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,202.50p 2.82%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,806.50p 2.76%
Carnival (CCL) 4,276.00p 2.71%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,655.50p -1.72%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,432.00p -0.62%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 451.90p -0.55%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 531.20p -0.30%
CRH (CRH) 2,196.00p -0.09%
Rightmove (RMV) 472.55p 0.00%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 292.70p 0.10%
BT Group (BT.A) 234.65p 0.15%
Barclays (BARC) 161.56p 0.16%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 338.50p 0.18%