FTSE 100 movers: Old Mutual on the rise; Whitbread hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% to 7,549.20 in afternoon trade, off the intraday highs from earlier that saw the index within a whisker of the 7,600 for the first time.

Old Mutual was among the gainers after saying its wealth management business, Old Mutual Wealth, has completed the acquisition of financial adviser network Caerus Capital Group.

Caerus consists of more than 300 advisers who are responsible for more than £4bn of assets under advice.

Premier Inn and Costa owner Whitbread was under the cosh after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’ and cut the price target to 3,900p from 4,000p.

Goldman said it sees the company lagging the broader UK hotel industry with only around 1% revenue per available room expected this year versus the UK year-to-date average of 7%, adding that the valuation fails to reflect this.

“While we usually see a lag between FX weakness and tourist volume pick-ups, we think Whitbread is unlikely to benefit from the trend due to its largely regional business exposure.

Risers

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,550.00p 2.58%
Old Mutual (OML) 195.20p 2.36%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 338.00p 2.18%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,625.00p 2.14%
Carnival (CCL) 5,125.00p 1.79%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,554.50p 1.39%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,127.00p 1.16%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 609.00p 1.16%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,510.00p 1.07%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,612.00p 1.07%

Fallers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 792.00p -3.12%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 186.00p -2.11%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,014.00p -1.93%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 368.40p -1.84%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,005.00p -1.66%
British Land Company (BLND) 630.50p -1.56%
Whitbread (WTB) 4,232.00p -1.54%
Intu Properties (INTU) 273.20p -1.44%
Hammerson (HMSO) 584.00p -1.43%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,971.00p -1.30%