FTSE 100 movers: Burberry boosted by upgrade, Paddy Power hit by downgrade
London's FTSE 100 was down 1% to 6,850.11 in afternoon trade on Monday, with sentiment undermined by disappointing Chinese trade figures as investors eyed this week's Commons vote on Brexit.
Luxury fashion brand Burberry was on the front foot after Bank of America Merrill Lynch upgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'underperform'.
On the downside, Paddy Power was under pressure after Barclays cut the stock to 'equalweight' from 'overweight' and trimmed the price target to 67p from 76p.
"We view the FY20E 7% unlevered free cash flow yield as attractive, but we do not view this as extremely cheap. With The Betfair Exchange under continued pressure, we move to EW from OW," it said.
GVC Holdings was also in the red as Barclays cut its price target on the overweight-rated stock to 1,083p from 1,180p in the same note.
Next lost ground as Credit Suisse reduced the stock to 'underperform' from 'neutral' and slashed the price target to 4,800p from 5,800p on concerns about margin attrition following the company's trading statement earlier this month.
It said that while the fourth quarter showed how well managed Next is and the resilience of the brand, it sees no end to the gradual margin attrition, which is likely to accelerate in future years as FX turns negative, eventually impacting cash generation.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 876.00p 1.72%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 844.20p 1.32%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 2,541.50p 1.30%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,176.00p 0.94%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 227.60p 0.84%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 4,344.00p 0.49%
Tesco (TSCO) 218.80p 0.37%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 1,545.00p 0.32%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,757.00p 0.31%
SEGRO (SGRO) 618.00p 0.26%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 6,255.00p -4.21%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 692.50p -3.75%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 567.80p -3.44%
Pearson (PSON) 996.80p -2.99%
Next (NXT) 4,617.00p -2.94%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 812.60p -2.82%
Informa (INF) 640.80p -2.44%
Schroders (SDR) 2,574.00p -2.28%
St James's Place (STJ) 966.80p -2.22%
3i Group (III) 809.00p -2.01%