Market Report: Merlin Entertainments bucks the trend
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Your support makes all the difference.The company behind Madame Tussauds and Legoland bucked the trend yesterday as the blue-chip index edged back towards record peaks.
Merlin Entertainments slipped 6.4p to 447.5p after it was downgraded to “neutral” by analysts at JP Morgan, who said the company’s strong prospects are now fully valued.
The FTSE 100 ended up 17.03 points at 7,070.7, within 50 points of the all-time high it hit earlier this month. Trustnet’s Tony Cross noted “heavyweight mining stocks leading the charge once again”, with the mining index up 1.6 per cent as metal prices rose on a weaker dollar. That left iron-ore giant Rio Tinto up 45.5p at 3,003.5p and Anglo American up 20p at 1,082p.
The blue-chip index was also buoyed by the housebuilders Barratt Developments, 11.5p higher at 541p, and Taylor Wimpey, 3.5p better at 169.2p, as new data revealed that house prices are growing faster in 12 of the UK’s largest cities than in central London, for the first time in a decade.
Top slot on the Footsie went to HSBC, however – up 17.5p at 629.7p as it unveiled a review of its headquarters location.
Pearson tumbled 42p to 1,360p, languishing at the bottom of the blue-chip index even though the education and media group told investors at its annual meeting that it had made a solid start to the year. It confirmed that its long- standing chairman is to step down in the next 12 months as part of a boardroom shake-up. Glen Moreno, who has held the role at Pearson for nine years, is to become chairman of Virgin Money.
AstraZeneca, meanwhile, dropped 80.5p to 4,749.5p as the drugs giant admitted that its first-quarter profits and revenues have been hit by the launch of generic copies of its popular stomach-acid pill Nexium in the US market, and by the strength of the dollar.
On the mid cap sector, Acacia Mining rose 11.8p to 292.3p as analysts at Credit Suisse gave the stock an “outperform” rating even after the company reported an 18 per cent fall in its first-quarter core profit. Its analysts reckon the new management could help “drive a rerating (35 per cent upside potential) on a six to 12-month view”.
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