FTSE 100 movers: Whitbread rallies on results; Abrdn hit by downgrade

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 1.3% at 7,282.55 in afternoon trade on Wednesday. Premier Inn owner Whitbread gained after it said first-quarter trading beat expectations, as demand continued to rebound following the worst of the pandemic.

London Stock Exchange was boosted by an upgrade to 'buy' from 'neutral' at UBS, which pointed to an attractive entry point.

"Our view on LSEG's management has improved in recent quarters as revenues (ex-one time items), costs and leverage have generally progressed better than we expected," UBS said.

"And with LSEG's shares down more than 20% since early April, we think current valuations offer an attractive entry point (19x 2023 EPS) for a business that can grow revenues circa 5% per annum (c70% of revenues from recurring sources), is positively geared to interest rate & FX volatility (via Tradeweb, LCH and FXall), and should generate 9% EBITDA and 13% EPS compound annual growth rates over 2021-24 due to cost synergy and deleveraging opportunities."

B&M European Value Retail was also higher Barclays upgraded the discount retailer to 'overweight' from 'equalweight' as it pointed to an "attractive" valuation even if zero pandemic benefit is retained.

The bank noted that B&M shares have fallen by more than 40% since the start of March, hurt by concerns on the CEO change, retention of pandemic gains, and potential headwinds from lower UK consumer spending.

"We think concerns are fully discounted at this share price and we expect better sales trends to be evidenced in the 1Q trading statement (29 June)," it said.

Abrdn was in the red after a downgrade to 'underperform' form 'outperform' at Credit Suisse.

"We see Abrdn's ability to deliver targeted high single digit revenue growth severely challenged by difficult market conditions," it said.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Whitbread (WTB) 2,699.00p 5.18% London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 7,078.00p 5.05% Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 725.60p 4.89% Ocado Group (OCDO) 817.60p 4.21% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 375.50p 3.96% Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 2,914.00p 3.74% Entain (ENT) 1,389.00p 3.54% Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 3,276.00p 3.54% Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,733.00p 3.52% RS Group (RS1) 876.00p 3.48%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Airtel Africa (AAF) 134.20p -5.63% Abrdn (ABDN) 166.55p -1.68% Shell (SHEL) 2,277.50p -1.32% BP (BP.) 429.70p -1.21% BAE Systems (BA.) 768.60p -0.80% Harbour Energy (HBR) 360.60p -0.77% Croda International (CRDA) 5,958.00p -0.13% Meggitt (MGGT) 769.60p 0.08% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,511.50p 0.13% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 453.40p 0.22%