Source: Sharecast
Tesco was the standout performer as it lifted its full-year guidance after a strong first half fuelled by the warm summer weather.
The supermarket giant said it now expects full-year group adjusted operating profit of between £2.9bn and £3.1bn, up from a previous range of between £2.7bn and £3.0bn.
3i Group was also up following a Bloomberg report that the private equity firm is considering exit options, including a possible sale of French IT maintenance provider Evernex. It was understood the sale of Evernex could be valued at €1.2bn to €1.5bn.
The shares were also boosted by an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at UBS.
Experian tumbled after US analytics software firm Fair Isaac announced the launch of a new program that could make US lenders less reliant on credit agencies.
Fair Isaac said on Wednesday that the ‘FICO® Mortgage Direct License Program’ will eliminate reliance on the three nationwide credit bureaus, giving tri-merge resellers the option to calculate and distribute FICO scores directly to their customers.
The news hit shares of Equifax and TransUnion, which closed down 11.1% and 7.1% respectively, on Wednesday.
The FICO score is used by lenders to help make credit risk decisions across the customer lifecycle.
A tri-merge credit report - also known as a three-bureau report - combines information from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion into a single report.
BT fell after a downgrade to ‘underperform’ at BNPP Exane.
SSE lost ground after saying it expects first-half profits to fall by up to a third, but guided to growth over the full year with the majority of annual earnings being delivered in the second half.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Tesco (TSCO) 448.50p 4.38%
3i Group (III) 4,292.00p 3.62%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 4,680.00p 2.14%
Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN) 47.97p 2.07%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,816.00p 1.70%
ICG (ICG) 2,248.00p 1.54%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 382.90p 1.46%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 534.40p 1.44%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) 8,754.00p 1.37%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 84.54p 1.34%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Experian (EXPN) 3,525.00p -4.08%
BT Group (BT.A) 184.90p -3.45%
SSE (SSE) 1,721.50p -2.55%
Centrica (CNA) 167.55p -1.90%
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 18,885.00p -1.90%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 586.50p -1.84%
WPP (WPP) 364.20p -1.78%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 100.10p -1.67%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,842.00p -1.64%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 4,965.00p -1.49%