FTSE 100 movers: Ocado gains, Sainsbury's in the red

London’s FTSE 100 was flat at 7,524.85 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Online supermarket Ocado advanced. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Ocado shares have continued to get a fair wind in the wake of the recent announcement that they have hired Gregor Ulitzka as head of its European solutions business, joining from Amazon.

"With all the recent stories linking Amazon and Ocado investors appear to be putting two and two together, and perhaps coming up with five."

AstraZeneca was in the black, having slumped on Monday after the results of a lung cancer drug trial.

Banks were on the back foot. Michael Hewson said: "Banks have also slipped back as they come under pressure to raise savings rates at the same speed that they increase their lending rates.

"This has been a common refrain and something that the major banks have always been prone to, quick to cut rates on savings and slow to raise them."

Sainsbury’s fell after the supermarket chain reported an 11% rise in grocery sales in the four months to June 24 and maintained annual guidance.

The company said total like-for-like sales were up 9.8% in the period, adding it had spent £60m lowering prices amid criticisms that supermarkets were fuelling inflation by widening profit margins during the cost-of-living crisis.

Sainsbury's said it still expected underlying pre-tax profit of £640 - 700m in 2023-24, compared with £690m a year earlier.

FTSE 100 - Risers

SEGRO (SGRO) 742.40p 2.20%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,574.00p 1.93%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 597.40p 1.60%
Unite Group (UTG) 892.00p 1.59%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 2,926.00p 1.46%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 610.40p 1.43%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 147.60p 1.10%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,207.00p 1.00%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,235.00p 0.94%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,797.00p 0.93%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

IMI (IMI) 1,593.00p -2.21%
Barclays (BARC) 152.26p -2.16%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 269.30p -1.93%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,734.50p -1.45%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 242.20p -1.42%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,540.00p -1.36%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 151.55p -1.33%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 4,320.00p -1.28%
3i Group (III) 1,902.00p -1.25%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,030.00p -1.20%