FTSE 100 movers: JMAT surges on results; Kingfisher drops on French woes
London's FTSE 100 was up 1.2% to 7,031.65 in afternoon trade on Wednesday as Theresa May was in Brussels having crunch Brexit talks with Jean-Claude Juncker.
Johnson Matthey was the standout gainer after reporting a rise in first-half profit and saying its full-year operating performance would be towards the upper end of its guidance.
In the six months to 30 September, pre-tax profit increased 19% to £244m on revenue of £7.1bn, up 10% from the same period a year ago. Earnings per share pushed up 21% to 106.1p and the interim dividend was lifted by 7% to 23.25p a share.
The specialty chemicals company said its clean air division continues to grow strongly, driven by its diesel share gains in light duty Europe, which are coming through as planned. In addition, the heavy duty business is also performing well, underpinned by strength in the Class 8 truck market in the US.
NMC Health was also on the rise as JPMorgan Cazenove said the UAE healthcare provider continues to be a strong growth story thanks to a mix of organic initiatives and aggressive M&A activity and bumped the stock up to 'overweight' from 'neutral', hiking the price target to 4,265p from 3,450p.
The bank noted that NMC has deployed $472m on 14 transactions since the beginning of the year and spent a total of about $2bn on acquisitions over the last three years.
Going the other way, home improvement retailer Kingfisher was the worst performer as it said third quarter total sales rose 1.2% to £3.04bn in constant currency, but like-for-like sales were down 1.3% reflecting continued weak sales in its French Castorama business. It also highlighted a "more uncertain" outlook for Castorama.
Inspection, testing and certification company Intertek was down as HSBC, which rates the stock at 'hold', cut its price target on the stock to 4,650p from 5,000 due to lower 2019 estimates.
HSBC said it expects underlying growth momentum to improve in the second half thanks to good momentum in the consumer division, but that the comps for 2018 are likely to be difficult.
"Its profits are more exposed to China than peers and greater clarity on tariffs would be a positive catalyst," it said.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,145.00p 13.25%
NMC Health (NMC) 3,694.00p 8.39%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 173.50p 3.74%
DCC (DCC) 5,740.00p 3.33%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 473.45p 3.29%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 807.60p 2.88%
Carnival (CCL) 4,589.00p 2.87%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,232.00p 2.76%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 594.00p 2.70%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,552.00p 2.60%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Kingfisher (KGF) 237.60p -3.53%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,570.00p -1.30%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,554.00p -0.94%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 6,202.00p -0.75%
Halma (HLMA) 1,340.00p -0.74%
St James's Place (STJ) 990.00p -0.64%
Ferguson (FERG) 4,763.00p -0.52%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,713.50p -0.48%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,306.00p -0.35%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,798.50p -0.33%