FTSE 100 movers: Retail sales, oil prices drag on index

The FTSE 100 was trading down on Thursday afternoon as investors ended the week early for Good Friday, with poor UK retail sales and falling oil prices dragging the benchmark down.

Kingfisher Group was among the top risers, after its stock had its ‘buy’ rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Jefferies Group in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies had a 420p price target on the home improvement retailer, suggesting a potential upside of 13.5%. Goldman Sachs also boosted its target price on Kingfisher to 435p from 400p, indicating a potential 17.19% upside.

Building materials group CRH was also rising, after it was revealed that Northroad Capital Management reduced its position in the firm by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. CRH comprised around 2.5% of Northroad Capital’s holdings, which made the stock its 19th largest position, worth $4.2m at its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Speculation was also still mounting over whether CRH would make a bid for LafargeHolcim’s Indian assets, rumoured to be up for sale.

Next stock was under serious pressure on Thursday, after the clothing retailer warned in its full-year results that the year ahead could be the toughest since 2008, with new guidance that included the possibility that profits could decline as much as 4.5%. Its profits for the year were at the upper end of expectations, however, with underlying pre-tax profit rising 5% to £821.3m.

Standard Chartered was also down significantly as oil fell, and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group warned the plunging resource prices were pushing up bad debts, saying provisions for bad debts would be more than expected at around AUD 900m as losses widened at miners and resource companies.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 9,350.00p 1.14%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,850.00p 1.06%
Kingfisher (KGF) 375.00p 1.02%
CRH (CRH) 1,954.00p 0.83%
Capita (CPI) 1,034.00p 0.58%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 991.50p 0.41%
Carnival (CCL) 3,529.00p 0.20%
National Grid (NG.) 985.00p 0.15%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,216.00p 0.08%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,707.00p 0.07%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Next (NXT) 5,720.00p -14.11%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 437.50p -8.40%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 3,282.00p -5.09%
Prudential (PRU) 1,277.50p -5.09%
Anglo American (AAL) 499.60p -4.57%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 394.90p -4.34%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 827.00p -3.89%
Tesco (TSCO) 190.05p -3.80%
Aviva (AV.) 456.80p -3.30%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 231.50p -3.22%