FTSE 100 movers: A tale of two companies, Vodafone and Hermes

Natural gas group BG was under the weather after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock to 'neutral' and cut its target price from 1,660p to 1,500p. Shares in Vodafone have moved into the second to worst spot on the top share index after it became known that Verizon Communications´s conference call agenda makes no reference to talks of a dividend distribution, according to some analysts. Mining firm Vedanta also dropped after HSBC slashed its target from 1,320p to 1,000p, though it maintained its 'overweight' rating. Another big faller was Kingfisher, Europe's largest home improvement retailer, was among the worst performers after sales were hit by the extraordinary bad weather in the second quarter, though trading in the UK and Ireland was resilient. Burberry on the other hand is heading up the gains after positive read across from Hermes. Engineering groups IMI and Weir were high risers after Swedish peer Sandvik released better-than-expected second-quarter results. Meanwhile, Croda International gained on the back of positive read-across from AkzoNobel. Banking group Lloyds was also higher after it agreed with the Co-op to sell hundreds of its branches for an initial consideration of £350m, and up to an additional £400m in present value. FTSE 100 - RisersBurberry Group (BRBY) 1,278.00p +3.73%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 209.10p +2.35%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,099.00p +2.33%ARM Holdings (ARM) 488.30p +2.13%ICAP (IAP) 316.80p +1.83%IMI (IMI) 805.50p +1.83%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,165.00p +1.66%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,486.00p +1.43%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,512.00p +1.41%SABMiller (SAB) 2,722.00p +1.36%FTSE 100 - FallersBG Group (BG.) 1,292.00p -1.94%Vodafone Group (VOD) 181.90p -1.78%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,406.00p -1.68%Vedanta Resources (VED) 895.00p -1.59%CRH (CRH) 1,194.00p -1.57%Kingfisher (KGF) 271.20p -1.45%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 257.10p -1.31%United Utilities Group (UU.) 687.50p -1.22%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,508.00p -1.03%National Grid (NG.) 665.50p -0.75%NR