FTSE 100 movers: Standard Life dropped, defensives a draw

(Sharecast News) - London's FTSE 100 benchmark lost ground on Friday falling 0.3% to just above 7,681 as commodities stocks had a tough day, with defensive stocks the main winners.Standard Life Aberdeen was among the big fallers after Lloyds Bank sold its remaining 3.3% stake in for £344m, with Lloyds shares falling too. The sale, which the bank said will have no impact on earnings, comes after Lloyds cancelled its £109bn arrangement with SLA in February, having expressed concerns over competition when Standard Life merged with Aberdeen Asset Management.Commodities stocks were leading the decline amid a stronger dollar and the week's copper gains starting to unwind despite the continued fears of a strike at Escondida, the world's largest mine. Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American were among the top fallers, topped off by precious metals miner Fresnillo. "Gold is largely unchanged today, despite the firmer US dollar," said David Madden at CMC Markets, as the yellow metal continued to see low volatility, having struggled to move above its 200-day moving average at $1,307. "The Federal Reserve is widely expected to raise interest rates next week. Buyers are likely to be wary on the run-up to the central bank meeting."Though the mining sector was down on the day, there was a positive sector note from JPMorgan Cazenove, saying mining valuations have re-rated but remain attractive as commodities research analysts predict a bullish outlook for commodities in 2018, due to accelerating and aligned global growth, US dollar weakness and rising inflation. "Our colleagues' analysis across the last five US economic cycles since 1960 concludes commodity prices typically move higher during the last 20% of an expansion," with above-trend global growth expected to stretch into 2019 and JPM FX strategists expecting the DXY dollar index to weaken around 2% to 92 by the end of 2018.Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets said many at the top of the leaderboard were there as investors plumped for defensive stocks or risk-off stocks such as Halma and Diageo, with the defensive appeal also mingling with ex-div recovery bounces for British American Tobacco, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, while chemicals group Johnson Matthey also getting some ex-dividend recovery.Associated British Foods was up after a positive write-up from Barclays, which returned from spending time with Primark's US management, including a visit to the recently 'right-sized' Freehold, New Jersey store, as well as the store on Staten Island in good spirits, reiterating its 'overweight' rating and edging up its share price target 2% to 3,400p."We return with increased conviction that the concept is resonating well with the consumer, with Primark offering as differentiated a proposition in the US as it does in the UK and Europe. Moreover, our tour of the Freehold store leads us to believe the smaller format can create the desired store level density and profitability in lower footfall mall locations to warrant proof of concept and further roll-out." BT bounced a little after the telecoms giant revealed that chief executive Gavin Patterson would leave before the end of the year. Investors were a little unsure of what to make of the development after the BT board said it remains supportive of the recently outlined strategy, suggesting no significant strategic changes. Analysts at Jefferies said they believed the decision reflects adverse shareholder reaction to BT's results last month and Patterson's leadership. "The potential positive now, in our view, is that his departure may ease bottlenecks in discussions with Ofcom as BT seeks a fair bet regulatory settlement on fibre." UBS, meanwhile felt the shares look "relatively cheap", but acknowledged that it will likely take "several quarters to restore investor confidence after the recent reset to estimates". Market MoversFTSE 100 (UKX) 7,686.61 -0.23%FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,173.39 0.09%FTSE 100 - RisersReckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 5,847.00p 1.53%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 581.00p 1.36%Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,739.00p 1.22%BT Group (BT.A) 205.05p 1.03%Diageo (DGE) 2,724.00p 1.02%Halma (HLMA) 1,423.00p 0.92%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,787.00p 0.85%Next (NXT) 6,060.00p 0.83%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 291.60p 0.83%Compass Group (CPG) 1,573.97p 0.77%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 1,208.50p -6.97%Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 351.70p -3.38%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,103.00p -2.82%Evraz (EVR) 499.30p -2.75%Glencore (GLEN) 384.00p -2.55%Royal Mail (RMG) 481.70p -2.11%Standard Chartered (STAN) 728.80p -2.03%Old Mutual (OML) 222.60p -1.90%Kingfisher (KGF) 302.40p -1.72%Anglo American (AAL) 1,854.00p -1.49%