FTSE 100 movers: Antofagasta boosted by upgrade; Rolls-Royce under the cosh
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1% at 8,234.27 in afternoon trade on Monday.
Antofagasta surged after Canaccord Genuity upgraded the Chilean copper miner to ‘buy’ from ‘hold’.
"The stock has pulled back over 30% from its peak of above 2,400p in May ‘24, and we think ANTO is starting to look attractively valued again," it said.
Ladbrokes owner Entain gained after Citi said that it and Flutter Entertainment were among its top picks in the sector for 2025.
Barratt Redrow was in the black as Redburn upgraded the housebuilder to ‘buy’.
Rolls-Royce slumped as Citi downgraded its stance on the shares to neutral’ from buy’ on valuation grounds.
"Following a strong recovery from the depths of Covid, we believe Rolls-Royce shares are now approaching what we consider to be current fair value," it said.
"We have increased our target price to 641p, leaving some upside, but insufficient to remain buyers."
Unilever also fell after RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock to ‘underperform’ from ‘sector perform’ and slashed the price target to 4,000p from 4,800p.
The bank said Unilever "hasn't the wherewithal" to boost volume performance sufficiently to achieve its 2% growth aspiration given its lack of market dominance, significant non-focus brands and markets (25%/15% of sales respectively), a less benign gross margin environment and record/intention of significantly lower capital investment than the competition.
It said the valuation is pushing towards best-in-class level that it thinks is unjustified and risk/ reward is weighted to the downside.
FTSE 100 - Risers
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 100.25p 6.47%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,670.50p 5.00%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) 2,140.00p 4.19%
Entain (ENT) 700.40p 3.55%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,424.50p 3.32%
Schroders (SDR) 330.00p 2.61%
Glencore (GLEN) 370.85p 2.56%
Spirax Group (SPX) 6,850.00p 2.47%
Barratt Redrow (BTRW) 430.40p 2.35%
Diploma (DPLM) 4,314.00p 2.28%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 565.80p -3.28%
WPP (WPP) 788.20p -3.17%
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 4,217.00p -2.29%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,460.00p -2.21%
easyJet (EZJ) 530.00p -1.92%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 383.40p -1.82%
Admiral Group (ADM) 2,625.00p -1.65%
BAE Systems (BA.) 1,137.50p -1.34%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 295.20p -1.24%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 11,285.00p -1.18%