FTSE 100 movers: BT gains as it sells iconic London tower; HSBC tumbles
By Michele Maatouk
Date: Wednesday 21 Feb 2024
(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was down 0.7% at 7,663.29 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
BT Group was among the gainers after saying it had agreed to sell the BT Tower to MCR Hotels for £275m.
MCR plans to preserve the BT Tower "as an iconic hotel, securing its place as a London landmark for the future," it said.
On the downside, HSBC tumbled as it posted a record jump in annual profits and announced a $2bn share buyback but missed forecasts as it was forced to take a $3bn hit from its exposure to a Chinese bank.
The Asia-focused lender said full-year pre-tax profit rose 78% to $30.3bn driven by high global interest rates, but below the $34.1bn average estimate of brokers compiled by the bank.
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said: "The company has been stung by a $3 billion charge on its stake in a Chinese bank and write-downs associated with commercial real estate and the sale of its French business. That's made the results a bit of a mess and led to a miss on full year forecasts.
"The outlook is also a bit of fudge with the company expecting to hit previously guided returns in the mid-teens for 2024, but only once some one-offs are stripped out. Costs are moving higher and loan losses are also going in the wrong direction from the bank's perspective.
"Amid all the noise, news of a $2 billion share buyback has been lost which feels a little unfair given the company will have returned upwards of 10% of its market valuation in dividends and buybacks in respect of 2023."
Rio Tinto was in the red as it said that commodity price movements led to a $1.5bn hit to underlying profits in 2023, though results were partly offset by a stronger US dollar and lower energy prices.
Glencore lost ground as it reported a halving of its full-year adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation amid lower commodity prices.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Convatec Group (CTEC) 247.20p 2.06%
BT Group (BT.A) 108.55p 1.59%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 525.00p 1.47%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 149.85p 1.46%
Beazley (BEZ) 580.50p 1.22%
Frasers Group (FRAS) 840.50p 1.14%
St James's Place (STJ) 661.20p 1.13%
Halma (HLMA) 2,306.00p 1.05%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 8,410.00p 0.91%
CRH (CDI) (CRH) 6,192.00p 0.85%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 585.40p -9.07%
Centrica (CNA) 130.35p -2.29%
Croda International (CRDA) 4,892.00p -2.14%
Entain (ENT) 904.40p -2.02%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 521.40p -1.96%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 16,330.00p -1.57%
WPP (WPP) 777.00p -1.42%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,161.00p -1.32%
Glencore (GLEN) 385.45p -1.27%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 320.10p -1.26%
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