FTSE 100 movers: Tesco surges on slower sales decline, miners lower

UK stocks edged lower on Friday, as Greece's crucial weekend approached and mining, engineering and oil stocks provided a drag.

As of 15:00 BST, the FTSE 100 was trading 0.4% lower at 6,783.

Supermarket chain Tesco gained after reporting that the ongoing slide in sales was slowing. UK like-for-like sales fell by 1.3% in the 13 weeks to 30 May, after 1.7% and 5.1% declines seen in the fourth and third quarters of the previous financial year.

Sector peers Morrisons and Sainsbury’s were also lifted by the news.

ARM Holdings topped the fallers after Bernstein downgraded the stock to ‘underperform’ from ‘market perform’ and slashed the price target to 800p from 1,000p. “We see a genuine risk of the smartphone slowdown observed in the first quarter of 2015 being the first of a series, more than an inventory correction,” said Bernstein.

BG Group reversed Thursday's gains, which came as UBS lifted oil price forecasts and named the company among its key 'buy' ratings in the sector.

A number of heavyweight mining stocks were also weaker, including Anglo American, Glencore and BHP Billiton, as researcher Morningstar forecast that steel demand in China, the world's biggest metals consumer, had peaked.

Risers
Tesco (TSCO) 225.65p +3.63%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 186.00p +1.58%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 278.60p +1.53%
BT Group (BT.A) 464.40p +0.69%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 343.20p +0.59%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,437.00p +0.56%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,153.00p +0.44%
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,377.00p +0.44%
Old Mutual (OML) 210.40p +0.43%
Royal Mail (RMG) 526.50p +0.38%

Fallers
ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,113.00p -3.05%
Anglo American (AAL) 976.30p -1.86%
Glencore (GLEN) 268.80p -1.74%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,315.00p -1.57%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,632.00p -1.33%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 942.50p -1.31%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,207.00p -1.31%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 440.30p -1.30%
BAE Systems (BA.) 469.40p -1.26%
SSE (SSE) 1,592.00p -1.24%