FTSE 100 movers: Entain rallies; retailers in the red

8th Apr 2024 13:55

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 was up 0.3% at 7,933.38 in afternoon trade on Monday.

Entain rallied following a report in The Times that private equity firm Apollo could be interested in making a takeover offer for some or all of the business.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "The Ladbrokes owner has previously been subject to interest from MGM and DraftKings, but neither suitor managed to place a winning bid. Since then, Entain's share price has lagged many of its peers and left it a sitting duck for a third party to swoop on the business. Entain is particularly vulnerable at the moment as the business is being run by a caretaker manager while the board searches for a permanent CEO.

"Expect a few twists and turns if the starting gun is fired again on any bid action as there will no doubt be multiple parties interested in picking apart Entain. It already has multiple activist investors on the shareholder register and they won't let someone casually waltz along and snap it up on the cheap.

"Scale matters in the gambling sector and Entain has its fingers in many pies around the world, including the US which offers some of the best growth opportunities geographically for the industry."

Miners were in the black, with Rio Tinto and Glencore both higher.

Rio was also in focus as it announced the appointment of Bold Baatar as its chief commercial officer to oversee its global commercial and business development, succeeding Alf Barrios.

Precious metals miner Fresnillo shone as gold prices hit another record high.

Retailers Ocado and Marks & Spencer both lost ground.

FTSE 100 - Risers

Entain (ENT) 824.20p 5.13%

Rio Tinto (RIO) 5,123.00p 2.99%

easyJet (EZJ) 574.00p 2.65%

Fresnillo (FRES) 555.50p 2.49%

Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 4,072.00p 2.31%

Anglo American (AAL) 2,134.00p 2.20%

Centrica (CNA) 126.75p 2.18%

Glencore (GLEN) 467.40p 2.03%

Diploma (DPLM) 3,656.00p 1.95%

Airtel Africa (AAF) 105.30p 1.94%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Ocado Group (OCDO) 371.40p -2.19%

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 255.90p -2.03%

Sage Group (SGE) 1,222.50p -1.96%

Rightmove (RMV) 538.00p -1.25%

Severn Trent (SVT) 2,399.00p -1.19%

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,842.00p -1.13%

London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 9,274.00p -1.11%

Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 15,730.00p -1.04%

Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 691.00p -0.92%

Diageo (DGE) 2,828.00p -0.75%