FTSE 250 movers: Acacia Mining sparkles, Plus500 tumbles

London’s FTSE 250 rose by 0.63% to 19,016.43 on Friday afternoon, with precious metals miner Acacia Mining heading up the advance.

The miner was on the up amid rising gold prices, which reached multi-month highs as a senior politician in Italy called for the core European Union nation to "change the EU or leave".

Stobart Group followed close behind after a court ruled that the civil engineering group’s decision to remove former boss and major shareholder Andrew Tinkler as both an employee and a director last summer was a "lawful and valid act", after Tinkler attempted to sue the business.

Wagamama owner Restaurant Group recovered after sliding on Thursday following the shock departure of chief executive officer Andy McCue for personal reasons, while Lancashire Holdings continued to inch upward after it reported a swing to profit in 2018 despite higher levels of loss activity related to natural catastrophes.

Plus500 tumbled following a report in The Times suggesting that the company may have misled shareholders over some losses in 2017, after it had reported that trading profits and losses made up merely a “marginal component” of group revenue, even though they provided 24% of group revenue last year and had reduced revenue by 20% the year before.

Furthermore, Peel Hunt downgraded underlying earnings forecasts for the online trading services provider by 28% to exclude client-bet revenue, stating that "Fundamentally the shape of Plus500’s earnings has changed".

Drax and was knocked lower by a downgrade from 'hold' to 'sell' at Citi, where analysts also cut the target price from 373p to 320p, while Domino's was on the downturn after Berenberg cut its standing from 'hold' to 'sell' and dropped its target price from 260p to 220p.

"Having expanded considerably over the past 20 years, Domino’s is one of the dominant players in the UK delivery market. However, we think it could be difficult for it to grow much further because the expansion of the delivery aggregators and Papa John’s is creating a significantly more competitive environment. In addition, we believe the drivers of growth for the delivery market are more likely to benefit the online aggregators and their customers than Domino’s," said Berenberg analysts.

Meanwhile, Convatec continued to drop after having posted a 6% drop in adjusted earnings before interest and tax for 2018, with a statement from the company acknowledging that it fell short of targets due to "poor execution".

Finally, price comparison website Moneysupermarket dropped after gaining on a jump in full-year revenue and operating profit earlier in the week.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,016.43 0.63%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Acacia Mining (ACA) 213.80p 7.25%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 187.40p 5.88%
Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 153.20p 4.93%
IP Group (IPO) 107.60p 4.67%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 135.47p 4.37%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 264.01p 4.19%
Contour Global (GLO) 171.20p 3.88%
Just Group (JUST) 100.30p 3.78%
Card Factory (CARD) 187.30p 3.71%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 660.00p 3.61%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 901.50p -14.14%
Drax Group (DRX) 373.40p -5.71%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 246.40p -3.18%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 208.40p -2.25%
Civitas Social Housing (CSH) 99.80p -2.16%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 117.65p -2.12%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 327.10p -1.80%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 587.50p -1.76%
Renishaw (RSW) 4,386.00p -1.48%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 1,328.00p -1.34%