FTSE 100 movers: Croda rallies; Tesco, Sainsbury's dented by JPM note

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 1.4% at 7,637.67 in afternoon trade on Friday. Specialty chemicals firm Croda rallied following solid earnings from Lonza and Sartorius, both of which were sharply higher, with analysts suggesting potential read-across to the company's pharma business.

Diageo jumped after well-received third-quarter results from French spirits maker Remy Cointreau.

Luxury fashion brand Burberry racked up strong gains after solid results from Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior owner LVMH.

Vodafone gained even as the UK's competition regulator opened a formal investigation into the proposed £15bn merger between it and Three UK.

Sainsbury's and Tesco were both under the cosh as JPMorgan Cazenove cut its price targets on the shares, saying it remains cautious on the UK grocery space fundamentally, which based on its investor feedback "appears still to be a contrarian stance".

The bank cut its price target on Sainsbury to 223p from 245p and on Tesco to 220p from 230p. Both rare rated 'underweight', along with B&M European Value Retail.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Croda International (CRDA) 4,758.00p 5.34% Diageo (DGE) 2,850.00p 5.17% Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,342.50p 5.01% St James's Place (STJ) 671.20p 3.84% Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 9,978.00p 3.70% Rentokil Initial (RTO) 406.90p 3.67% Vodafone Group (VOD) 70.30p 3.20% Prudential (PRU) 857.20p 2.76% United Utilities Group (UU.) 1,054.00p 2.73% Anglo American (AAL) 1,874.00p 2.67%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Centrica (CNA) 138.80p -3.78% Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 274.70p -2.38% Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 255.70p -1.80% Tesco (TSCO) 293.60p -1.74% SSE (SSE) 1,715.00p -1.38% BAE Systems (BA.) 1,168.00p -1.18% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 306.00p -0.16% InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 7,476.00p -0.16% Next (NXT) 8,492.00p -0.02% Melrose Industries (MRO) 581.20p 0.03%