FTSE 100 movers: Oil shares gush higher; British Land hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 7,330.77 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.

Shell and BP gushed higher as oil prices rose. Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "Oil continues to advance off its trend support, with spot Brent rising to a two-week high at $114, as oil producers in OPEC struggle to match supply commitments.

"Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE are said to be at capacity, whilst Libyan production is struggling with a potential force majeure at the Gulf of Sirte. OPEC shouldn’t do anything unexpected."

Severn Trent and United Utilities were also higher, recovering some ground after being hit on Tuesday by a research note from JPMorgan.

On the downside, British Land was the worst performer on the index after a downgrade to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’ at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while Land Securities fell after a downgrade to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’ by the same outfit.

Premier Inn owner Whitbread was on the back foot as it said the current boss of Domino’s Pizza - Dominic Paul - will replace Alison Brittain as chief executive.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Standard Chartered (STAN) 638.00p 2.80%
Shell (SHEL) 2,221.50p 2.04%
BP (BP.) 404.95p 1.99%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,794.00p 1.90%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,044.00p 1.80%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,978.00p 1.78%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 553.10p 1.34%
National Grid (NG.) 1,083.50p 1.26%
BAE Systems (BA.) 837.00p 1.26%
RS Group (RS1) 880.50p 1.15%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

British Land Company (BLND) 464.20p -8.48%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 685.60p -6.92%
Pearson (PSON) 743.60p -5.71%
Unite Group (UTG) 1,085.00p -4.74%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 111.88p -4.21%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,279.00p -4.20%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 830.80p -3.78%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,341.50p -3.77%
Whitbread (WTB) 2,547.00p -3.67%
Entain (ENT) 1,260.50p -3.34%