FTSE 250: Electrocomponents on the rise while gold miners suffer

The FTSE 250 index was up 0.43% to 17,677.07 in the later afternoon.

British engineering distributor Electrocomponents gained as it reported a healthy 44% jump in first half pre-tax headline profits to £55.1m. The company said it had made an encouraging start to the second half of the year, with all hubs seeing an improvement in underlying revenue growth in October versus the Q2 trend.

Ted Baker continues to advance on the back of positive third-quarter results released on Thursday. Despite continuing challenging external conditions that have seen other retailers stumble, revenues were up 14.8% in the 13 weeks to 12 November 2016, a modest acceleration from the 14.4% in the first half of the year.

Vectura also continued to edge higher as Numis highlighted a major overhaul of the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease treatment guidelines, with many changes in treatment recommendations on Thursday.

Dollar-denominated commodities suffered from weakening demand after the greenback rose following Fed chair Janet Yellen’s speech indicating the central bank could move rates “relatively soon”. Shares in gold miners Hochschild, Acacia Mining and Centamin as well as diamond miner Petra diamonds fell as a result.

The dollar also weighed down on metal prices with steel prices down 2%, sending shares in Steel producer Evraz down.

GCP Infrastructure fell as it announced a placing of new ordinary shares to raise around £60m to take advantage of a number of attractive investment opportunities in the near term.

Risers

Electrocomponents (ECM) 440.50p 19.05%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 675.50p 5.22%
Laird (LRD) 146.50p 5.17%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,591.00p 3.23%
Vectura Group (VEC) 150.30p 3.16%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,217.00p 2.96%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,243.00p 2.94%
CYBG (CYBG) 298.20p 2.47%
Rightmove (RMV) 3,900.00p 2.44%
Marshalls (MSLH) 292.60p 2.38%

Fallers

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 224.40p -4.51%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 133.60p -4.50%
GCP Infrastructure Investments Ltd (GCP) 127.50p -3.77%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 150.60p -3.34%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,574.00p -2.48%
P2P Global Investments (P2P) 770.50p -2.16%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 439.90p -1.63%
Evraz (EVR) 239.40p -1.48%
Meggitt (MGGT) 453.90p -1.43%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 449.40p -1.36%