FTSE 100 movers: Entain rallies; Ocado in the red

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 0.5% at 7,975.37 in afternoon trade on Thursday. Entain - the sports betting and gambling group currently without a permanent chief executive - gained as it announced that chair Barry Gibson will also step down later this year following a four-year tenure. Stella David, the non-executive director who stepped in as interim CEO, was been named as Gibson's successor.

Miners Anglo American and Antofagasta were both higher as metals prices rose.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "Miners were in demand as commodities prices continued to surge - an inflationary development which might provoke some nervousness about the fate of long-awaited interest rate cuts."

AstraZeneca was a high riser as JPMorgan Cazenove reiterated its 'overweight' rating on the shares and placed them on 'positive catalyst watch' into Q124 results.

"We expect sequential top-line acceleration of 7 percentage point and sequential core EBIT margin expansion of 11 percentage points, reassuring, post market concerns at Q4'23," the bank said.

Ocado was in the red as it said that chairman Rick Haythornthwaite will be stepping down next year at the annual general meeting in April "due to his increasing commitment" as the recently-appointed chair of NatWest.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Entain (ENT) 789.80p 4.03% Anglo American (AAL) 2,116.50p 3.34% Antofagasta (ANTO) 2,163.00p 3.00% Fresnillo (FRES) 539.50p 2.96% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.74p 2.60% NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 279.60p 2.53% Barclays (BARC) 193.30p 2.52% AstraZeneca (AZN) 10,794.00p 2.20% Standard Chartered (STAN) 708.60p 2.13% Unite Group (UTG) 952.00p 1.93%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 429.10p -2.32% JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 129.05p -2.20% InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 7,954.00p -1.90% Admiral Group (ADM) 2,656.00p -1.41% Croda International (CRDA) 4,681.00p -1.37% Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 418.90p -1.20% Convatec Group (CTEC) 290.00p -1.16% Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,607.00p -1.11% Whitbread (WTB) 3,244.00p -1.01% BP (BP.) 506.60p -0.98%