London’s FTSE 100 was up 1.4% at 6,574.01 in afternoon trade on Monday.
British Airways and Iberia parent IAG was the top gainer amid optimism that travel will resume now that Covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out.
Housebuilders Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Barratt and Berkeley were all higher on news of a new mortgage guarantee scheme that would see a return of 95% of mortgages.
Reports over the weekend suggested that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will unveil in his budget this week a mortgage guarantee scheme to help first-time buyers. As part of the scheme, the government will offer incentives to lenders which would mean that people would be able to buy properties worth up to £600,000 with a deposit of just 5%.
Pennon was boosted by an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at Barclays following a de-rating.
“It now trades at a 6% premium to regulatory asset base and, if the 570p cash on its balance sheet is removed, it trades at an attractive circa 10x price-to-earnings, 7% dividend yield,” the bank said.
On the downside, online supermarket Ocado was weaker after an initiation at ‘reduce’ by Kepler Cheuvreux.
FTSE 100 – Risers
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 203.40p 5.97%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 165.05p 4.73%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,712.00p 4.71%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 1,188.00p 4.67%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 694.20p 4.49%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 4,229.00p 4.34%
Pennon Group (PNN) 911.60p 4.30%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,888.50p 4.18%
M&G (MNG) 191.10p 3.92%
Evraz (EVR) 592.80p 3.82%
FTSE 100 – Fallers
Informa (INF) 536.80p -2.54%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 2,163.00p -1.68%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 223.90p -1.02%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 541.20p -0.95%
Tesco (TSCO) 222.70p -0.93%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 422.30p -0.92%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 828.80p -0.19%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 170.60p -0.15%
Next (NXT) 7,554.00p -0.08%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,237.00p 0.00%
