FTSE 100 movers: Travel stocks lead following recent Ebola-related declines

Travel stocks were among the best performers as investors continued to search for bargains after recent Ebola-related weakness in the sector.

TUI Travel, Intercontinental Hotels, Carnival, IAG and Easyjet were putting in decent gains, with the latter two being helped by positive comments from Morgan Stanley analysts, who recommended investors buy the stocks with 'overweight' ratings and raised its target price on both.

Smiths Group led the downside after its finance director announced he will step down in six months' time in order to pursue opportunities outside the group. The FTSE 100 technology group will use his remaining time with the board to find his successor.

Investors in the UK's biggest high street banks were left underwhelmed on Monday by the news that Britain's lenders had all passed the latest stress tests in Europe. Lloyds, HSBC, RBS and Barclays were all trading firmly in the red in afternoon trade. Results from the European Banking Authority's (EBA) health checks of European banks showed that 24 of 130 had failed.

Lloyds was also hit by Jefferies International, which cut its rating to 'underperform' from 'hold'.

The wider mining sector was broadly lower, with Antofagasta, Vedanta and Hochschild Mining among the worst performers.

Anglo American declined despite reporting the delivery of the first ore on ship from its Minas-Rio iron ore project in Brazil, while Randgold slipped after underwhelming investors with a positive update on its Tongon mine in north Côte d'lvoire.

FTSE 100 - Risers
TUI Travel (TT.) 375.00p +2.57%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,271.00p +2.44%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 998.00p +2.04%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 389.10p +1.51%
Admiral Group (ADM) 1,295.00p +1.49%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,045.00p +1.28%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 872.00p +1.22%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,435.00p +1.21%
SABMiller (SAB) 3,396.50p +1.16%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,741.00p +1.11%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,121.00p -2.69%
Fresnillo (FRES) 748.50p -2.35%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 402.50p -2.19%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,504.00p -2.08%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,046.00p -2.06%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 679.00p -2.02%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 779.50p -1.95%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 75.23p -1.94%
Royal Mail (RMG) 449.20p -1.88%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 407.20p -1.69%