FTSE 100 movers: Sage and Micro Focus rally; Hargreaves in the red again
London's FTSE 100 was steady at 7,215.06 in afternoon trade on Wednesday as investors continued to mull the latest reading on the UK services sector and dovish comments from Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell.
Sage and Micro Focus were the standout gainers after US peer Salesforce.com posted better-than-expected first-quarter results on Tuesday and lifted its financial outlook for fiscal year 2020.
In terms of sectors, housebuilders put in a strong performance, with Barratt Developments and Taylor Wimpey both higher.
On the downside, Hargreaves Lansdown was under the cosh for the second day in a row as it got caught up in the fallout from the suspension of trading of Neil Woodford's flagship Equity Income Fund.
Aviva was in the red as it said chief financial officer Tom Stoddard will step down on 30 June. The company said that Jason Windsor, the chief financial officer of Aviva UK Insurance, would take on Stoddard's role on an interim basis.
Lloyds Banking Group was in the red as Morgan Stanley cut its earnings estimates for the stock by 2% for 2020 and 2021, but said it remains its top pick.
"Despite the lower earnings driven by the flattening of the yield curve, Lloyds remains the most profitable bank in the UK and one of the most profitable in Europe, with top quartile shareholder return," it said. "We continue to expect a £2.5bn share buyback to be announced at year end, driving a total yield on the stock of 12%."
MS said shareholder returns could take more time at RBS.
"RBS share buybacks are dependent on the government's ability to sell down its stake in the market. In the current context it seems increasingly difficult to see this happening and hence we delay the share buybacks in our model to 2020," Morgan Stanley said.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Sage Group (SGE) 759.00p 3.52%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,910.80p 2.80%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,140.50p 2.52%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 567.44p 2.43%
Next (NXT) 5,852.00p 2.16%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,564.00p 2.11%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 689.90p 2.01%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 169.30p 1.96%
DCC (DCC) 6,796.00p 1.95%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,894.00p 1.87%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 2,006.50p -5.62%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,268.00p -4.30%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,133.00p -1.97%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 214.10p -1.97%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,525.00p -1.76%
Barclays (BARC) 151.44p -1.73%
Aviva (AV.) 411.10p -1.60%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 794.80p -1.22%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 57.25p -1.11%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,915.20p -1.04%