Sharecast - Ocado (LON:OCDO) was the standout gainer on the index, having slumped on Tuesday after it issued a trading statement for Ocado Retail, its 50:50 joint venture with Marks & Spencer.
Tesco (LON:TSCO) was boosted by an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘equalweight’ at Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS).
Advertising giant WPP (LON:WPP) advanced after an upgrade to ‘outperform’ at Exane.
On the downside, Next slumped after it posted a better-than-expected jump in full-year profit and said selling price inflation was set to be more benign than previously thought, but that the year ahead will be "difficult" and it continues to expect a decline in profit.
In the year to January 2023, pre-tax profit rose 5.7% to £870.4m, coming in ahead of company guidance of £860m. Total trading sales were up 8.4% to £5.1bn, with full prices sales ahead 6.9%.
Smith & Nephew was weaker after a downgrade to ‘underweight’ from ‘overweight’ at Barclays (LON:BARC), which said it sees further share losses in Ortho.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 475.40p 7.07%
M&G (MNG) 187.90p 4.77%
Prudential (LON:PRU) 1,080.50p 3.45%
British Land Company (BLND) 374.80p 3.08%
Tesco (TSCO) 262.60p 3.02%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 236.50p 3.01%
WPP (WPP) 946.60p 3.00%
Persimmon (LON:PSN) 1,237.00p 3.00%
Barclays (BARC) 141.28p 2.99%
Phoenix Group Holdings (PHNX) 565.80p 2.99%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Next (NXT) 6,408.00p -4.73%
Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) 1,927.00p -1.28%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,121.50p -1.02%
BAE Systems (LON:BAES) (BA.) 985.20p -0.28%
Convatec Group (CTEC (LON:CTEC)) 220.00p -0.27%
British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) 2,876.50p -0.16%
Mondi (LON:MNDI) 1,308.00p -0.11%
Pearson (LON:PSON) 824.20p -0.10%
GSK (GSK) 1,420.60p -0.03%
National Grid (LON:NG.) 1,070.50p 0.00%