FTSE 100 movers: ARM, Johnson Matthey and Unilever boosted by upbeat broker notes

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - London's FTSE was firmly in the black on Friday, bouncing back as Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen's argument in favour of raising interest rates this year alleviated concerns about the economic outlook. At 1613 BST, the FTSE 100 index was up 2.6% at 6,115.49. ARM Holdings (LSE: ARM.L - news) , which designs chips for Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) , was the standout gainer as Exane BNP Paribas pointed to a Chinese blog suggesting the next Apple processor, the A10, could be a six core versus A9's dual core. Exane said that while this remains a rumour at this stage, if true it would validate its thesis that the smartphone industry is shifting towards multi-core, which would drive higher royalty rates for ARM.

Johnson Matthey (LSE: JMAT.L - news) was also firmly in the black after Redburn upgraded the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral' saying the sharp selloff on the back of the Volkswagen (Other OTC: VLKAF - news) emissions scandal was overdone. Redburn said it had no idea how the saga will end for VW, but a total demise of the diesel car engine seems highly unlikely, particularly considering the need for diesel technology to allow car-makers to meet the EU 2020 CO2 emissions targets, which are legal requirements. It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) said a more likely scenario than the death of diesel will be a further tightening of the emissions testing processes potentially in conjunction with more stringent nitrogen oxide limit, which should benefit JMAT.

Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) also benefited from a positive broker note, as Berenberg lifted its stance on the stock to 'buy' from 'hold', saying a valuation entry point has opened up, offering 20% upside. "Our forecasts do not assume a quick rebound in emerging-market growth, but we believe Unilever is past the trough of group organic growth. It provides margin momentum, improving return on invested capital and free cash flow generation, with net M&A increasingly accretive," it said.

Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) turned higher in late afternoon trading after Bloomberg reported that the miner has hired banks to sell its stake in an agricultural unit. It said talks were under way with a dozen wealth funds and Asian trading houses. Bloomberg cited a person familiar with the matter as saying that the deal could value the whole unit at as much as $12bn. However the senitment didn't last long, with the stock dropping back down to negative territory.

Risers ARM Holdings (ARM) 980.50p +5.83% Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,519.00p +5.05% Unilever (LSE: 0NXN.L - news) (ULVR) 2,641.00p +4.06% St James's Place (STJ) 869.00p +3.89% Prudential (Amsterdam: PD8.AS - news) (PRU (HKSE: 2378-OL.HK - news) ) 1,392.50p +3.65% Experian (Amsterdam: EP8.AS - news) (EXPN) 1,059.00p +3.62% Schroders (SDR) 2,872.00p +3.50% Barclays (Swiss: BARC.SW - news) (BARC) 255.00p +3.47% Severn Trent (Other OTC: STRNY - news) (SVT) 2,160.00p +3.40% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 599.50p +3.36% Fallers Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) (ANTO) 505.00p -1.27% Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 3,900.00p -1.17% Fresnillo (Amsterdam: FN6.AS - news) (FRES) 615.00p -0.97% Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) (AAL) 619.00p -0.90% Glencore (Amsterdam: GX8.AS - news) (GLEN) 97.87p -0.74%