FTSE 100 movers: Telecoms shares rally on deal news; gold miners drop

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,257.43 in afternoon trade on Monday.

Vodafone and BT Group rallied after private equity firm KKR made a $12bn takeover approach to Telecom Italia.

Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "There has been a lot of speculation about a possible takeover of BT of late, so the move by KKR creates some further excitement that Altice’s Patrick Drahi could launch a bid."

Royal Mail was also on the front foot. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said the shares were higher "on expectations that they will benefit from this week’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, as well as the lead-up to Christmas".

Miners Antofagasta, BHP, Rio and Anglo American all rose as copper prices advanced.

BHP was in focus after it and Woodside Petroleum signed a AUD$40bn petroleum merger deal, which will see Woodside acquire BHP’s petroleum assets in return for a 48% in the combined company.

On the downside, Polymetal and Fresnillo both lost their shine as gold prices fell.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,476.50p 4.83%
Royal Mail (RMG) 518.00p 3.91%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,931.40p 2.51%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 115.86p 1.97%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,541.00p 1.93%
BT Group (BT.A) 163.75p 1.93%
Kingfisher (KGF) 327.70p 1.61%
Barclays (BARC) 193.88p 1.53%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 612.20p 1.53%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,885.50p 1.46%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Polymetal International (POLY) 1,398.00p -5.09%
Darktrace (DARK) 517.50p -1.90%
Prudential (PRU) 1,427.50p -1.62%
Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 11,375.00p -1.47%
ITV (ITV) 119.00p -1.41%
Fresnillo (FRES) 940.60p -1.28%
Aveva Group (AVV) 3,395.00p -1.28%
Sage Group (SGE) 791.80p -0.98%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,267.50p -0.78%
Informa (INF) 510.20p -0.78%