FTSE 100 movers: Ashmore rises on Barclays upgrade

LONDON (ShareCast) - Investment manager Ashmore (LSE: ASHM.L - news) was the best performer, rising over 5%, bouncing back after a poor performance yesterday on the back of a downgrade from Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) . Today, however, the stock was given a boost after Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) upgraded it to overweight from neutral. ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) , the chip designer for many Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) products, leapt 4% after Apple's quarterly figures showed robust demand for its trendy iPhones, iPads and Macs. Net (Frankfurt: A0Z22E - news) income rose to $13.1bn in the first quarter of the company's fiscal year, more than double the $6bn achieved in the first quarter of the previous year. Putting the cherry on the top, Apple also raised earnings guidance for its second quarter. Industrial (Mexico: ST2000.MX - news) engineer Weir was heading north after agreeing to acquire US oil and gas pump valve maker Novatech for $176m (£113m) in cash. Weir is looking to further strengthen its presence in the US unconventional oil and gas markets following the recent $675m acquisition of wellhead solutions provider Seaboard Holdings which was completed in December. Sector peer IMI (EUREX: IMIF.EX - news) was also in demand. Meanwhile, banking heavyweights RBS, Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) and Standard Chartered (Xetra: 859123 - news) were among the worst performers, dragging the Footsie (FTSE: ^FTSE - news) down after gross domestic product figures came in worse than expected. The UK economy contracted at an 0.2% quarterly rate in the fourth quarter, according to the latest data out this morning from the Office for National Statistics. Consensus were looking for a fall of 0.1%. RBS was also being pressured lower by UBS (NYSEArca: DJCI - news) which downgraded the stock from buy to neutral. FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) - Risers Ashmore Group (ASHM) 373.00p +5.07% ARM Holdings (ARM) 606.00p +4.48% Weir Group (Other OTC: WEIGF.PK - news) (WEIR) 1,987.00p +3.11% Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 727.00p +2.25% IMI (Xetra: 389425.DE - news) (IMI) 853.50p +1.79% Land Securities Group (LAND) 693.00p +1.61% Hammerson (HMSO) 386.80p +1.34% Whitbread (Other OTC: WTBCF.PK - news) (WTB) 1,684.00p +1.32% InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,319.00p +1.15% Rexam (Xetra: 860000 - news) (REX) 380.60p +1.04% FTSE 100 - Fallers Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) (LLOY) 30.61p -3.38% SSE (Frankfurt: A0RFBG - news) (SSE) 1,220.00p -2.63% Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 26.34p -2.62% Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) (TSCO) 323.80p -1.88% ICAP (LSE: IAP.L - news) (IAP) 332.50p -1.77% Old Mutual (LSE: OML.L - news) (OML) 144.60p -1.70% Compass Group (Other OTC: CMPGF.PK - news) (CPG) 597.50p -1.65% Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,545.50p -1.62% Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,279.00p -1.58% Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,360.50p -1.56% NR