FTSE 100 movers: Tesco lifted by upgrade; Next slumps on outlook
London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.1% at 7,562.55 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Ocado was the standout gainer on the index, having slumped on Tuesday after it issued a trading statement for Ocado Retail, its 50:50 joint venture with Marks & Spencer.
Tesco was boosted by an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at Morgan Stanley.
Advertising giant WPP advanced after an upgrade to ‘outperform’ at Exane.
On the downside, Next slumped after it posted a better-than-expected jump in full-year profit and said selling price inflation was set to be more benign than previously thought, but that the year ahead will be "difficult" and it continues to expect a decline in profit.
In the year to January 2023, pre-tax profit rose 5.7% to £870.4m, coming in ahead of company guidance of £860m. Total trading sales were up 8.4% to £5.1bn, with full prices sales ahead 6.9%.
Smith & Nephew was weaker after a downgrade to ‘underweight’ from ‘overweight’ at Barclays, which said it sees further share losses in Ortho.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 475.40p 7.07%
M&G (MNG) 187.90p 4.77%
Prudential (PRU) 1,080.50p 3.45%
British Land Company (BLND) 374.80p 3.08%
Tesco (TSCO) 262.60p 3.02%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 236.50p 3.01%
WPP (WPP) 946.60p 3.00%
Persimmon (PSN) 1,237.00p 3.00%
Barclays (BARC) 141.28p 2.99%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 565.80p 2.99%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Next (NXT) 6,408.00p -4.73%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,927.00p -1.28%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,121.50p -1.02%
BAE Systems (BA.) 985.20p -0.28%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 220.00p -0.27%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,876.50p -0.16%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,308.00p -0.11%
Pearson (PSON) 824.20p -0.10%
GSK (GSK) 1,420.60p -0.03%
National Grid (NG.) 1,070.50p 0.00%