FTSE 100 movers: SABMiller higher, while Brexit risk drags housebuilders

The FTSE 100 was in the red on Friday afternoon, as investors reacted to slower growth in China, with lower oil prices and Brexit concerns also affecting the markets.

SABMiller was among the leaders, after fellow brewing conglomerate Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed to create a ZAR 1bn fund to support the South African beer industry and protect jobs in the country, in a bid to gain the approval of that country’s government. It pledged to maintain full-time employment levels in South Africa for five years after the takeover, and brought the merger - which will create the world’s largest brewer by a country mile - a step closer.

State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland was also rising, a day after it confirmed it had plans to cut 32 branches from its NatWest network, affecting around 600 jobs. It brought the total number of job losses at the bank this year to 1,500, after it posted its eighth consecutive annual loss in February at £2bn.

Housebuilders were expending their losses from the previous session as concerns about Brexit led Berkeley Group, Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey below the waterline. "Ahead of Brexit, people have been selling the housebuilders and the pressure will remain until we get the vote out of the way - that's the main headwind for UK housebuilders," Zeg Choudhry, managing director at LONTRAD, said.

Anglo American was also in the red, after Rio Tinto’s chief executive Sam Walsh poured cold water on speculation it was keen on Anglo’s Australian coal assets on Thursday. "It would highly surprise me if that physically went anywhere," he said at Rio’s annual meeting in London. "I think what actually happens is an investment bank or someone who is handling a transaction like that tries to pump it up."