FTSE 100 movers: house builders, miners sag as easyJet firms

House builders were led lower by Persimmon, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments, investors exiting the stocks on concerns about the value of UK homes going forward.

The sector's share prices have seen volatility since UK voted to quit the European Union in a non-binding referendum in late June.

Meantime, metals diggers BHP Billiton and Anglo American were on the back foot as metals prices reversed.

At about 14:36 BST, gold was down 0.82% to $1346.10 an ounce, while silver slumped 1.9% to $19.37 an ounce and industrial-favourite copper eased 0.18% to $217.45 a pound.

Around the same time, sterling was 1.04% down against the US dollar, fetching just $1.3031. It was also down 0.88% to 130.365 yen, which continued to benefit from its safe-haven appeal.

Fellow miner Glencore also tapered as Macquarie downgraded its recommendation on the shares to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform' ahead of the company's first-half results next week. However, analysts bumped up their target price on the stock from 180p to 200p.

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered fell, as did insurers Prudential and Legal & General, the latter having recently gone ex-dividend.

To the upside, gainers from a mix of sectors were led by budget airline easyJet, which taxied higher on chat of a possible £16 a share takeover offer from private equity, founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou or a New York firm.

Utility company Centrica advanced as Barclays raised its target price from 240p to 245p with an ‘equal weight’ rating, saying it sees long-term potential from its new Connected Home & Distributed Energy & Power divisions.

In the leisure sector InterContinental Hotels enjoyed some traction, while smokes outfit British American Tobacco exhaled higher, as did supermarket Morrisons.

Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,860.86 -0.12%

FTSE 100 - Risers
easyJet (EZJ) 1,099.00p 1.95%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 3,371.00p 1.35%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,898.50p 1.33%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 194.50p 1.20%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 1,100.00p 0.92%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 54.25p 0.71%
Sage Group (SGE) 734.00p 0.69%
BAE Systems (BA.) 531.00p 0.66%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,641.00p 0.61%
Centrica (CNA) 235.10p 0.60%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Standard Chartered (STAN) 620.30p -2.36%
Glencore (GLEN) 191.75p -2.27%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,744.00p -1.86%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 154.40p -1.84%
Prudential (PRU) 1,371.00p -1.83%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 204.60p -1.78%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,056.00p -1.77%
St James's Place (STJ) 947.00p -1.61%
Anglo American (AAL) 867.70p -1.40%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 449.00p -1.32%