FTSE 100 movers: Ocado surges; Phoenix goes ex-div
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.7% at 7,616.37 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Online supermarket Ocado was the top riser on the index. CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said: "Ocado has continued to make gains and has risen sharply for the second day in a row. The gains of the last two days have come despite the shares finishing lower on the day that they published their Q1 numbers.
"At the time there was a sense that the fall seemed overdone given the weakness we’d already seen since January, begging the question as to whether a lot of the bad news was already in the price. The reaction of the last two days would appear to suggest that there is a degree of that, hence the gains seen in the last couple of days."
SSE rallied after it lifted full-year earnings per share guidance again as it hailed a strong performance from its flexible generation plant.
The energy company now expects adjusted EPS of more than 160p per share for the full-year 2022/23, up from previous guidance of more than 150p. SSE had already lifted its guidance in January from at least 120p a share to at least 150p.
Going the other way, Phoenix Group, Aviva, Abrdn, Smith & Nephew, Taylor Wimpey and Mondi all fell as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 521.60p 9.12%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 2,028.00p 5.79%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 621.60p 4.19%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 175.15p 4.13%
SSE (SSE) 1,809.00p 4.12%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 148.44p 3.75%
British Land Company (BLND) 387.50p 3.58%
Entain (ENT) 1,248.50p 3.52%
Unite Group (UTG) 934.00p 3.32%
SEGRO (SGRO) 756.80p 3.25%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 543.80p -4.06%
Aviva (AV.) 407.30p -3.05%
Abrdn (ABDN) 202.80p -2.83%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,100.50p -1.78%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 119.45p -1.57%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,286.00p -1.42%
BAE Systems (BA.) 973.80p -1.28%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,843.50p -1.10%
Croda International (CRDA) 6,438.00p -0.86%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,800.00p -0.81%