FTSE 100 movers: Smiths surges on breakup plans; Sainsbury's hit by downgrade
London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 8,675.40 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Smiths Group surged to the top of the index as the engineering business said it was selling its interconnect unit and planned to demerge or offload the detection operation as part of a strategic review that includes extending its share buyback to £500m.
Smiths added that the recent cyber attack was limited to internal enterprise systems, and it had "made good progress in the recovery of these, with most critical systems being back online".
Next was also in the black after UBS upgraded its stance on the shares to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ and lifted the price target to 11,700p from 10,500p.
The bank said the fashion and homeware retailer was at an "inflection point" as far as growth and valuation are concerned.
It said that Next was a "safe haven" in an uncertain consumer landscape.
UBS lifted its FY27/FY28 pre-tax profit estimate by 1% and earnings per share by 3%/6%.
On the downside, Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘hold’ by HSBC.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Smiths Group (SMIN) 2,082.00p 11.64%
St James's Place (STJ) 1,066.00p 3.50%
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 4,352.00p 3.03%
Next (NXT) 10,005.00p 2.34%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 89.00p 2.09%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,257.50p 1.99%
Centrica (CNA) 142.20p 1.97%
SSE (SSE) 1,635.50p 1.71%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 340.20p 1.61%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 578.00p 1.49%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,716.00p -1.66%
Fresnillo (FRES) 701.00p -1.61%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 334.90p -1.56%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 254.80p -1.32%
Haleon (HLN) 371.20p -1.20%
Prudential (PRU) 680.60p -1.19%
Kingfisher (KGF) 245.50p -1.09%
BT Group (BT.A) 142.10p -1.08%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 246.80p -1.04%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 119.70p -1.03%