FTSE 100 movers: Aveva boosted by upgrade; British Land hit by downgrade

London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 6,590.75 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Aveva was the top gainer after an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at UBS.

Next was also sharply higher after the retailer reported a smaller-than-expected drop in sales over Christmas and said online sales made up for almost all those lost in retail stores.

In the nine weeks to 26 December, full price sales declined 1.1% on last year, coming in ahead of the retailer’s central guidance for an 8% drop in its October trading update.

Online sales during the period rose 38%, with UK online sales up 36%, while retail sales slumped 43%.

Oil giants BP and Shell gushed higher in tandem with rallying oil prices.

Going the other way, British Land was knocked lower by a downgrade to ‘underweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at Morgan Stanley, as it took a look at European office stocks.

Paper and packaging group Smurfit Kappa and education publisher Pearson also lost ground.

FTSE 100 – Risers

Aveva Group (AVV) 3,523.00p 7.57%
Next (NXT) 7,320.00p 5.90%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘A’ (RDSA) 1,350.40p 3.70%
BP (BP.) 262.85p 3.28%
Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) 1,299.00p 3.21%
Glencore (GLEN) 250.00p 1.87%
Kingfisher (KGF) 280.70p 1.81%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 105.05p 1.79%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 531.60p 1.57%
Compass Group (CPG) 1,390.50p 1.39%

FTSE 100 – Fallers

Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 3,462.00p -3.35%
Pearson (PSON) 662.60p -2.82%
WPP (WPP) 776.20p -2.61%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 9,052.00p -2.27%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 11,425.00p -2.23%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,780.50p -2.14%
NATWEST GROUP PLC ORD 100P (NWG) 155.60p -2.02%
Ferguson (FERG) 8,680.00p -1.90%
British Land Company (BLND) 467.10p -1.83%
Informa (INF) 531.20p -1.81%