FTSE 100 movers: Oil stocks gush higher but Fresnillo loses its shine
London’s FTSE 100 was down 1.1% to 6,707.35 in afternoon trade.
Fresnillo declined as gold prices fell, while Severn Trent retreated as its stock went ex-dividend.
On the upside, Shell and BP gushed higher as oil prices advanced on the back of OPEC’s agreement to cut production by 1.2m barrels a day to 32.5m barrels from January next year.
BP was also underpinned by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ from ‘neutral’ by Credit Suisse on valuation grounds.
The bank said the progress made on capital productivity and efficiency, as presented at the recent field trip in Baku, “is impressive and should be applauded”.
Dixons Carphone was a top gainer as Credit Suisse initiated coverage of the stock at ‘outperform’ with a 420p price target.
“Despite robust like-for-like growth and profit delivery this year, shares are down 33% year to date on investor concerns about weak sterling and demand next year. We argue that Dixons Carphone will pass through higher costs, while demand is likely to remain stable and the flux in the industry should help the company gain market share in the UK and Europe.”
Legal & General was also boosted by a broker note, as Barclays upgraded the stock to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ and lifted the price target to 276p from 194p.
“We upgrade Legal & General to Overweight as we believe the risk of a UK recession has faded while the Solvency II capital requirements of writing bulk annuities is much more efficient than expected,” the bank said.
Risers
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,163.50p 2.12%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 338.30p 1.96%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,059.00p 1.63%
Capita (CPI) 532.50p 1.53%
BP (BP.) 466.30p 1.49%
ITV (ITV) 170.40p 1.43%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 239.10p 1.40%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 196.90p 1.34%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,420.00p 0.64%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 148.70p 0.27%
Fallers
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,146.00p -4.50%
Severn Trent (SVT) 2,098.00p -4.07%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,634.00p -3.88%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,574.00p -3.61%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,086.00p -3.44%
Old Mutual (OML) 183.70p -3.26%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,330.00p -2.99%
Carnival (CCL) 3,925.00p -2.94%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,270.00p -2.81%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,671.00p -2.80%