FTSE 100 movers: Tesco moves back up the chain

After a slow start to the morning, the FTSE 100 was up 16.74 points (0.26%) to 6,353.09 by mid-afternoon.

Despite Wednesday’s announcement that underlying profits are down 55% for the first half of the year, Tesco is leading the risers for the day. UBS on Thursday morning issued a note saying it sees scope for Tesco to recover trading and earnings momentum over the new two to three years. It reiterated its buy rating.

Mining company Fresnillo came in a close second of the risers after HSBC reiterated its buy rating and raised the company’s target price from 760p to 810p. It said "we look for progressively improving operational results, higher gold and silver prices and expect improved rating to move the stock price up”.

BHP Billiton also had an uptick after Jefferies commented on the metals and mining industry. “If commodity prices stabilise as we expect, highly leveraged miners should take advantage of the opportunity to strengthen their balance sheets via asset sales and equity issuances. Miners with financial flexibility are best positioned to buy high quality assets at a very weak point in cycle."

Inmarsat was the biggest casualty of the morning after it issued a brief trading update. It said there was no material change in the trading environment or the group’s performance since its last update and that group revenue for the year is expected to be between $1.25bn and $1.3bn.

Risers

Tesco (TSCO) 202.30p +2.69%

Fresnillo (FRES) 693.50p +2.59%

BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,136.00p +2.53%

Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,291.00p +2.30%

Shire Plc (SHP) 4,427.00p +2.26%

easyJet (EZJ) 1,706.00p +2.03%

Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,483.00p +1.92%

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 748.00p +1.91%

ARM Holdings (ARM) 954.00p +1.71%

AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,179.50p +1.64%

Fallers

Inmarsat (ISAT) 939.00p -3.79%

Glencore (GLEN) 120.45p -2.86%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 487.70p -2.28%

Aviva (AV.) 472.40p -2.03%

Kingfisher (KGF) 352.10p -1.79%

Wolseley (WOS) 3,699.00p -1.36%

Sports Direct International (SPD) 734.50p -1.01%

Next (NXT) 7,655.00p -0.91%

3i Group (III) 484.60p -0.84%

Mondi (MNDI) 1,449.00p -0.69%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 131.10p +6.93%

Evraz (EVR) 92.80p +3.69%

NMC Health (NMC) 855.50p +3.07%

Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,107.00p +2.69%

Vedanta Resources (VED) 521.50p +2.36%

Cineworld Group (CINE) 568.00p +2.07%

Informa (INF) 580.50p +1.84%

FirstGroup (FGP) 100.00p +1.83%

Dunelm Group (DNLM) 911.00p +1.79%

Drax Group (DRX) 268.50p +1.74%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Hays (HAS) 136.90p -7.19%

IP Group (IPO) 220.90p -6.75%

Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 868.00p -4.88%

Clarkson (CKN) 2,155.00p -3.32%

Weir Group (WEIR) 1,357.00p -3.28%

Rank Group (RNK) 259.00p -3.14%

Vectura Group (VEC) 170.00p -3.13%

PZ Cussons (PZC) 298.40p -3.12%

Vesuvius (VSVS) 350.00p -2.99%

Smith (DS) (SMDS) 369.30p -2.71%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers

Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 7.95p +3.92%

Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 631.00p +3.19%

Filtronic (FTC) 6.88p +1.85%

Triad Group (TRD) 31.25p +0.81%

XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,650.00p +0.61%

E2V Technologies (E2V) 237.00p +0.42%

KCOM Group (KCOM) 91.25p +0.27%

IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 203.50 +0.20%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers

NCC Group (NCC) 249.25p -2.06%

BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 19.50p -0.64%

Consort Medical (CSRT) 930.50p -0.64%

Dialight (DIA) 663.50p -0.52%

Skyepharma (SKP) 338.50p -0.37%

Spirent Communications (SPT) 75.50p -0.33%

Ricardo (RCDO) 900.00p -0.28%

SDL (SDL) 370.25p -0.20%