FTSE 100 movers: Hargreaves Lansdown rallies; Phoenix hit by downgrade
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.9% at 7,505.02 in afternoon trade on Monday.
Investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown surged to the top of the index after price target increases at both Deutsche Bank and Barclays.
On the downside, Phoenix Group was lower after JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded the shares to ‘neutral’ from ‘overweight’ and reduced the price target to 775p from 800p. It said Phoenix has grown strongly in the UK pension risk transfer (PRT) market, allowing it to organically grow dividend per share.
"Still, its overall cash flow growth is still relatively limited, and we believe its quality of capital is lower than peers," it added.
M&G was also on the back foot after a downgrade to ‘underweight’ from ‘neutral’ at JPM, which cut the price target to 210p from 250p. It pointed out that M&G does not write new PRT or annuities and earnings/free cash flow growth may be constrained by the run-off of its Heritage business.
"It offers a high dividend yield, but with low dividend cover and growth," JPM said, adding that the stock is expensive.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 953.00p 7.59%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,954.50p 2.33%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 287.40p 2.17%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 674.20p 2.15%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 84.66p 2.00%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,193.50p 1.96%
Experian (EXPN) 2,900.00p 1.90%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,509.50p 1.86%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 5,012.00p 1.85%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 11,640.00p 1.84%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
RS Group (RS1) 1,037.00p -2.54%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 3,518.00p -1.68%
Centrica (CNA) 82.68p -1.34%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 662.60p -1.10%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,758.00p -0.99%
Avast (AVST) 681.60p -0.96%
WPP (WPP) 807.60p -0.86%
Pearson (PSON) 880.60p -0.65%
M&G (MNG) 216.40p -0.60%
Glencore (GLEN) 464.85p -0.42%