FTSE 100 movers: Barratt and Redrow hit by downgrades; banks rally

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 9,686.46 in afternoon trade on Tuesday. Berkeley and Barratt Redrow lost ground after RBC Capital Markets downgraded its stance on the housebuilders to 'underperform' from 'outperform' and to 'sector perform' from 'outperform', respectively.

Going the other way, Barclays and Lloyds were among the top performers after the Bank of England said all seven of the biggest lenders passed its stress tests.

In its half-year Financial Stability Report, the Bank flagged increased risks to the UK's financial system, including sky-high valuations of tech companies, while also trimming the amount of capital banks need to hold in reserve.

However, despite the heighted risk climate, the BoE opted to cut capital requirements for the UK's biggest banks after they passed its latest stress tests.

It found that the sector was well capitalised, and that UK household and corporate aggregate indebtedness remained low. As a result, the BoE lowered the appropriate benchmark for the level of Tier 1 capital requirements to 13% from 14%, the equivalent to a CET1 ratio of around 11%. Analysts had been largely expecting the reduction.

Entain gained after JPMorgan upgraded the Ladbrokes owner to 'overweight' from 'neutral'.

The bank said that Entain's market share momentum appears to be more resilient than initially anticipated, with a solid third-quarter performance delivered despite the lapping of some of these easy comps, implying a sequentially improving underlying momentum.

In the UK specifically, Q3 online net gaming revenue growth was 15% after 21% in the first half, despite comps somewhat normalising quarter-on-quarter, "demonstrating a supportive momentum overall", it said.

Segro was also in the black after saying it had signed a pre-let development agreement with a major international retailer for an 86,000 sq m distribution centre in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Land Securities Group (LAND) 617.50p 2.83% Vodafone Group (VOD) 94.02p 1.80% GSK (GSK) 1,824.50p 1.36% Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN) 44.17p 1.32% SSE (SSE) 2,234.00p 1.27% Barclays (BARC) 435.05p 1.27% National Grid (NG.) 1,158.50p 1.27% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 96.70p 1.26% Entain (ENT) 796.40p 1.19% SEGRO (SGRO) 719.00p 1.15%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,628.00p -2.21% Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 622.00p -1.95% Rightmove (RMV) 534.00p -1.91% Fresnillo (FRES) 2,780.00p -1.42% Spirax Group (SPX) 6,560.00p -1.35% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 417.30p -1.23% WPP (WPP) 295.10p -1.21% Barratt Redrow (BTRW) 383.90p -1.18% 3i Group (III) 3,009.00p -1.15% easyJet (EZJ) 488.00p -1.11%