FTSE 100 movers: JD Sports surges; utilities in the red

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,974.56 in afternoon trade on Thursday. JD Sports Fashion surged after saying it expects full-year profits to be within guidance of £915m to £935m. It said the current year would be "challenging" due to less product innovation and more discounting, but expects sales to pick up on the back of the Paris Olympics and European football finals in the summer.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Amid cracks in the athleisure and footwear sector, JD Sports has managed to outperform the market and is upbeat about prospects for the year ahead. That's quite a different message from other key players in the sector such as Lululemon and Nike which both disappointed with their latest updates as consumers rein in spending and competition heats up.

"JD Sports isn't completely immune. The marketplace is awash with discounting and a lack of new products to excite shoppers. Interest rates remain high and consumer spending habits are unlikely to show a drastic improvement until we've seen several rate cuts by central banks. However, JD continues to open new stores which might help it grow sales at a faster rate than the average peer.

"JD's success has been driven by consumers racing to buy the latest trainers, pairs of which often costing hundreds of pounds. It has also been able to extract more money from the same type of customer by convincing them to snap up expensive tracksuits and running tops. The company's scale and deep relationships with important brands has given it an advantage over many rivals and enabled it to expand across different geographies and become a major force in the sports retail world.

"The current blip in the trading environment is certainly testing its abilities to hunker down and keep the tills ringing, yet when the backdrop improves JD has the right ingredients to continue its goal of increasing market share."

On the downside, M&G, Smith & Nephew and Taylor Wimpey all lost ground as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.

Utilities Severn Trent, United Utilities, SSE and British Gas owner Centrica all fell amid a funding crisis at Thames Water.

FTSE 100 - Risers

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 131.55p 13.11% Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 16,090.00p 2.65% Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,026.00p 2.07% Reckitt Benckiser Group (RKT) 4,527.00p 2.01% Barclays (BARC) 185.16p 2.01% Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,918.00p 1.99% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 174.85p 1.95% Fresnillo (FRES) 465.20p 1.79% WPP (WPP) 752.20p 1.68% Glencore (GLEN) 435.55p 1.59%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

M&G (MNG) 221.20p -5.79% Smith & Nephew (SN.) 997.80p -4.38% Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 136.90p -2.39% Severn Trent (SVT) 2,480.00p -2.36% United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,026.00p -1.87% Ocado Group (OCDO) 458.30p -1.76% CRH (CDI) (CRH) 6,784.00p -0.99% Convatec Group (CTEC) 286.40p -0.97% SSE (SSE) 1,642.00p -0.97% Centrica (CNA) 127.80p -0.93%