FTSE 100 movers: Barclays rallies as Sherborne takes stake; Micro Focus gets battered
London's FTSE 100 was down 1.4% to 7,066.66 in afternoon trade on Monday as investors looked ahead to a busy week that includes rate decisions from the Fed and the Bank of England.
Barclays was the standout gainer as it emerged that Edward Bramson's activist investment fund, Sherborne Investors, has acquired 5.2% of the voting rights in the bank. Sherborne, which describes itself as a turnaround investment firm, said it has invested £580m of the company's capital in Barclays shares and derivatives.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, pointed out that Sherborne "has built a formidable reputation for squeezing improved financial and operational performance from the companies in which it invests".
British Land and Land Securities got a boost from Hammerson, which surged after confirming that it had recently rejected a £5bn bid from French shopping centre operator Klepierre on the basis that it significantly undervalued the group and was "entirely opportunistic in its timing".
Advertising company WPP was on the front foot as it was upgraded to 'buy' at Pivotal.
On the downside, Micro Focus took a beating as chief executive Chris Hsu resigned and the company downgraded its profits guidance less than six months after completing the reverse takeover of HP Enterprise's software arm.
Heavily-weighted miners Glencore, BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Rio Tinto were all in the red amid weaker metals prices.
Shire was under the cosh as Morgan Stanley slashed its price target on the overweight-rated stock to 4,700p from 5,700p.
Risers
Barclays (BARC) 219.20p 4.63%
British Land Company (BLND) 650.00p 2.85%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 930.90p 2.66%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,791.00p 2.10%
SEGRO (SGRO) 618.00p 1.58%
Royal Mail (RMG) 522.40p 1.24%
WPP (WPP) 1,180.50p 0.98%
Croda International (CRDA) 4,579.00p 0.68%
Carnival (CCL) 4,727.00p 0.62%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,540.00p 0.51%
Fallers
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 1,072.00p -43.11%
Glencore (GLEN) 371.45p -3.64%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,393.60p -3.44%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,710.20p -3.35%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,049.00p -3.22%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,622.00p -3.03%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,723.00p -2.93%
BP (BP.) 461.15p -2.66%
Shire Plc (SHP) 3,121.50p -2.62%
Centrica (CNA) 134.80p -2.56%