FTSE 100 movers: DCC rallies on results; Vodafone retreats
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Tuesday 14 May 2019
(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 0.9% to 7,224.87 in afternoon trade on Tuesday as investors digested the latest UK jobs data and Sino-US trade developments.
Spirax-Sarco Engineering rallied ahead of its inclusion in an MSCI index series, while DCC gained after it said annual pre-tax profit rose 3.3% as acquisitions helped the sales and support services group overcome mild weather that affected its heating businesses.
Miners were the standout gainers overall, with Glencore, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto and Anglo American all higher as copper prices rose.
BHP was also in focus after the miner's chief executive said his company had a strong future no matter how climate change and other developments play out.
Andrew Mackenzie told a conference the FTSE 100 miner's mix of businesses would do well under almost all scenarios. Decarbonisation, electric transport, the future of work and food security are among the themes BHP monitors, he said.
On the downside, Vodafone retreated, revering earlier gains as it cut its full-year dividend to 9 cents a share from 15 cents and said it swung to an annual loss of €7.6bn from a profit of €2.8bn the year before. Revenue at the company fell 6.2% to €43.7bn.
Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, argued that while there is "a long list of reasons to be uncheerful" about the results, there are also grounds for optimism over Vodafone's ambitions.
"The reduction to the dividend is prudent, given the enormous constraints on cash flow, not to mention that dividend cover had slipped to unsustainable levels. Even after the cut, the yield will remain punchy and the group has committed to returning to a progressive policy."
Land Securities was weaker as it said a "significant" drop in the value of its retail assets led to wider full-year pre-tax losses as retail failures increased vacancies and the company warned of no let-up in the near term.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Evraz (EVR) 585.60p 5.25%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 8,405.00p 4.28%
Fresnillo (FRES) 750.60p 3.39%
DCC (DCC) 6,678.00p 2.96%
Glencore (GLEN) 279.35p 2.82%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 825.00p 2.71%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,474.50p 2.44%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,909.00p 2.41%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 2,303.00p 2.26%
BHP Group (BHP) 1,750.00p 2.15%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Vodafone Group (VOD) 129.28p -1.90%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 876.00p -1.82%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 1,299.79p -1.49%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,006.00p -1.03%
Imperial Brands (IMB) 2,151.00p -0.94%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,088.00p -0.57%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 379.90p -0.45%
British Land Company (BLND) 561.59p -0.36%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,635.50p -0.30%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,543.00p -0.27%
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