FTSE 100 movers: Fresnillo shines; Intertek hit by downgrade

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was down 0.2% at 8,338.67 in afternoon trade on Monday. Gold miner Fresnillo shone as the price of the yellow metal hit another record high.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Safe-haven assets are in demand as conflict continues to wrack the Middle East and concerns persist about a slowdown in global growth.

"More investors have been piling into gold, with the precious metal reaching fresh record highs. Israel's continuing bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza is adding to the risk of overspill into wider conflict in the region. The uncertain outcome of the US presidential election is also likely to be playing on minds and leading to more defensive positioning."

Oil giants BP and Shell also gushed higher as oil prices rose.

On the downside, Intertek fell as RBC Capital Markets downgraded the shares to 'sector perform' from 'outperform' and cut the price target to 5,000p from 5,200p.

"Intertek has performed well versus the wider sector year to date and now trades at what we deem to be fair value, taking into account recent FX movements and, we think, a less certain outlook for FY25," the bank said. "Thus we lower our rating to sector perform."

RBC said Intertek has struggled to shake off its reputation for overpaying for M&A historically, but it thinks attractive regional exposures, improved capital discipline and the lowest proportionate restructuring costs compared to peers historically, still hold their attractions for longer term investors.

"We still see ITRK as attractively positioned for the medium to longer term, but would wait for a better entry point after decent share price performance year to date."

FTSE 100 - Risers

Fresnillo (FRES) 745.50p 6.05% BP (BP.) 406.50p 1.73% Smith (DS) (SMDS) 454.20p 1.61% Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,402.00p 1.07% B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 409.80p 1.04% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,825.00p 1.03% Shell (SHEL) 2,561.00p 0.97% Croda International (CRDA) 3,778.00p 0.96% London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 10,620.00p 0.81% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,012.00p 0.70%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Intertek Group (ITRK) 4,972.00p -2.80% Weir Group (WEIR) 2,116.00p -2.04% Prudential (PRU) 660.60p -1.90% Airtel Africa (AAF) 115.20p -1.87% Entain (ENT) 714.80p -1.73% Severn Trent (SVT) 2,669.00p -1.66% United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,071.50p -1.43% JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 134.70p -1.39% Sage Group (SGE) 1,026.50p -1.35% Spirax Group (SPX) 6,720.00p -1.32%