FTSE 100 movers: Entain, Burberry and miners feel the heat of selling pressure

(Sharecast News) - Just eight names were trading in positive territory on the FTSE 100 on Monday afternoon as investors scaled back their appetite for risk, with the mining stocks, Entain and Burberry bearing the brunt of the selling pressure. Entain dropped 12% after the Ladbrokes owner said its third-quarter performance was weaker than forecast due to adverse sporting results, regulatory headwinds and a slower-than-expected performance in Australia and Italy. As a result, full-year online net gaming revenue would be see a "low single digit percent" decline, compared with earlier guidance of "low to mid single digit" growth.

The news also dragged sector peer Flutter Entertainment down 3%.

Burberry was also out of favour, down 4% on negative readacross from a broker downgrade at Gucci parent group Kering. Bank of America analysts cut the stock to 'underperform', saying they are turning more cautious on "companies with higher exposure to a younger, less affluent customer and in the midst of a brand turnaround", citing sector peers Burberry, Salvatore Ferragamo and Tod's.

Mining stocks were down, with Rio Tinto, Antofagasta, Fresnillo and Anglo American registering losses, on the news that struggling Chinese developer China Evergrande called off a meeting with creditors and scrapped a debt restructuring plan. "Anything bad in China typically has a negative knock-on effect to UK-listed diversified mining stocks," said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. "Investors are clearly worried that commodity demand will weaken if China's economy continues to falter."

Also sharply lower were tobacco rivals Imperial and British American Tobacco on reports that the UK government is looking at stricter laws around the legal smoking age. According to sources cited by The Guardian on Friday, Whitehall is considering measures similar to New Zealand where there is an annually rising legal age limit which effectively bans people buying tobacco who were born after January 2009.

Building materials group CRH was the standout performer of the day, jumping 4% after kicking off another $1bn share buyback programme, taking the total amount of buybacks since May 2018 to $6bn.

AstraZeneca was holding up relatively well after analyst Mark Purcell at Morgan Stanley said EU biopharma plays should "offer a safe haven from weakening growth/higher real yields". Purcell said: "Whilst we continue to favour growth/innovation narratives in biopharma over the long term, we expect investors to reward earnings upgrade stories - Novo Nordisk, Novartis, AstraZeneca - in the near term."

Dechra Pharmaceuticals and Hikma Pharmaceuticals were in the red, but still outperforming the wider market with only mild losses.

Also outperforming the FTSE 100 was GSK, down just 0.4% after the approval of its Arexvy vaccine by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The vaccine, for the prevention of RSV disease in adults aged 60 and above, marks the first RSV vaccine for this age group in Japan.

FTSE 100 - Risers

CRH (CDI) (CRH) 4,525.00p 4.24% IMI (IMI) 1,488.00p 1.22% Barratt Developments (BDEV) 471.40p 0.81% AstraZeneca (AZN) 11,112.00p 0.60% M&G (MNG) 203.90p 0.54% Rightmove (RMV) 569.80p 0.39% Smurfit Kappa Group (CDI) (SKG) 2,730.00p 0.37% Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 3,006.00p 0.20%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Entain (ENT) 929.80p -11.95% Imperial Brands (IMB) 1,638.00p -5.75% Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,921.00p -4.19% Ocado Group (OCDO) 665.40p -3.73% British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,626.50p -3.08% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 147.40p -3.03% Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,379.50p -2.99% Flutter Entertainment (CDI) (FLTR) 13,610.00p -2.92% Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,036.00p -2.84% Severn Trent (SVT) 2,358.00p -2.76%