FTSE 100 movers: Miners rally but Glaxo slips on sale and acquisition
The FTSE 100 was up 1.1% to 7,056.15 in afternoon trade on Monday as investors cheered a temporary trade truce between the US and China.
The risk-on mood and easing worries about the impact of a trade war on China - a big metals consumer - meant that miners were the standout gainers, with Evraz, Antofagasta, Anglo American, Glencore and Rio Tinto all higher.
Glencore was also in focus as it announced a series of management changes, including the departure of its copper marketing chief Telis Mistakidis at the end of the year.
Energy-related shares were also on the rise, with Wood Group in the green as oil prices surged.
On the downside, GlaxoSmithKline was the worst performer as it announced a sale and an acquisition, neither of which appear to have pleased investors.
The company agreed to sell Horlicks and other nutrition brands to Unilever for £3.1bn. It also announced an agreement to buy US-based oncology-focused pharmaceutical group Tesaro Inc for around $5.1bn (£4bn).
Liberum didn't seem keen on the US acquisition.
"Clearly GSK needs to bolster its pipeline and Tesaro certainly does that. However, Zejula in its existing indication is struggling to compete with Astra/Merck's Lynparza while its PD1 is well behind other competitors," it said.
"At this point Tesaro looks to be second best in the PARP space and while this can be turned around with expansion in other indications, we have limited evidence thus far that this will be the case. Moreover, we are not sure where the synergies are with GSK. A Roche acquisition of Tesaro may have made some strategic sense given it lacks a PARP but has an established PDL1 therapy. For GSK we see less clear rationale for the deal but await more detail on the conference call later today."
FTSE 100 - Risers
Evraz (EVR) 493.10p 8.59%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 865.00p 8.07%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,683.80p 7.51%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,605.60p 6.93%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 672.80p 5.95%
Glencore (GLEN) 306.10p 5.50%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,750.00p 5.37%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,848.00p 5.06%
CRH (CRH) 2,245.00p 4.56%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 349.10p 4.49%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,559.84p -3.81%
BT Group (BT.A) 254.90p -2.71%
Kingfisher (KGF) 243.90p -2.44%
3i Group (III) 819.80p -1.66%
British Land Company (BLND) 558.00p -1.17%
Next (NXT) 4,844.00p -1.16%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 289.70p -1.02%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 235.35p -0.95%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 754.60p -0.76%
ITV (ITV) 144.10p -0.76%