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FTSE 100 movers: SA-exposed stocks rally; Standard Life slides
London's FTSE 100 was up 0.2% to 7,228.87 in afternoon trade on Thursday, helped along by a solid performance from miners, while companies with exposure to South Africa did well as investors welcomed Jacob Zuma's resignation.
Old Mutual and Mondi - both of which have dual listings on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Securities Exchange - racked up healthy gains as Cyril Ramaphosa took over from Jacob Zuma as president of South Africa.
The South African rand rallied to its highest level since March 2015 following Zuma's resignation, after weeks of political wrangling, helping to boost companies with SA exposure.
Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said investors were breathing a sigh of relief after nine years of scandal.
"Growth has stagnated badly under Zuma and there is hope that this will usher in a period of greater political stability and maybe some economic reforms that can get the drivers of growth going again.
"Ramaphosa us seen as good for business and will tackle corruption and mismanagement. Not that he won't face challenges of course - there are deep economic and social problems and the ANC remains pretty divided. But whatever happens under the new president, I think markets and business assume it won't be anything like as bad as Zuma."
Miners Rio Tinto, Fresnillo and Antofagasta advanced as metals prices gained on the back of a weaker dollar.
On the downside, Standard Life Aberdeen retreated after saying it was making an impairment charge of around £40m after Lloyds Bank announced it was withdrawing an estimated £100bn in funds controlled by its Scottish Widows investment arm.
"We are disappointed by this decision in the context of the strong performance and good service we have delivered for LBG, Scottish Widows and their customers," said SLA chief executives Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert.
"We will be discussing the implications of this with LBG and Scottish Widows."
AstraZeneca, Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever were all weaker as their stock went ex-dividend.
Risers
Old Mutual (OML) 248.40p 3.76%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,215.00p 3.58%
Evraz (EVR) 387.80p 3.33%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,850.00p 3.27%
BAE Systems (BA.) 589.00p 2.90%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 4,135.00p 2.71%
Just Eat (JE.) 883.40p 2.55%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,360.50p 2.33%
Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,558.00p 1.99%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 933.80p 1.94%
Fallers
Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) 358.50p -7.91%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,675.00p -3.18%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 656.40p -1.91%
DCC (DCC) 6,685.00p -1.69%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,752.00p -1.61%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,291.50p -1.21%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,754.50p -0.99%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,264.50p -0.75%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,407.50p -0.73%
National Grid (NG.) 739.40p -0.64%