FTSE 100 movers: Barclays sale boosts Sainsbury's

20th Oct 2009 14:17

Barclays and J Sainsbury are dominating the FTSE 100 movers today on the back of the same story. Qatar's sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding is selling 379.22m shares that it is converting from warrants at an exercise price of 197.775p each, but said it will remain a long-term shareholder in the bank. Speculators have put two and two together and surmised that the Barclays sale could be a prelude to Qatar making a renewed assault on supermarket group Sainsbury, where it has a 26% stake. Elsewhere, Pearson is going well on a better than expected trading update due to strong education earnings in the US.But Autonomy has run into profit taking despite a very strong set of figures. The data search specialist said revenues in the three months to 30 September rose to $191.61m from $121.11m in the third quarter of 2008. Third quarter adjusted profit before tax climbed to $64.27m from $53.67m in the third quarter of 2008, within the guidance parameters given earlier this year by the company but towards the bottom end of the range.FTSE 100 - RisersSainsbury (J) (SBRY) 347.50p +5.27%Pearson (PSON) 853.50p +3.83%Man Group (EMG) 369.30p +2.58%Cable & Wireless (CW.) 141.60p +2.02%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 585.50p +1.83%National Grid (NG.) 596.50p +1.79%Diageo (DGE) 990.00p +1.75%Centrica (CNA) 245.80p +1.74%FTSE 100 - FallersAutonomy Corporation (AU.) 1,488.00p -6.71%Barclays (BARC) 364.15p -4.69%Burberry Group (BRBY) 562.00p -2.52%Wolseley (WOS) 1,430.00p -2.32%Liberty International (LII) 510.00p -1.92%Old Mutual (OML) 112.90p -1.83%Friends Provident Group (FP.) 82.20p -1.73%Aviva (AV.) 436.10p -1.67%