FTSE 250 movers: Acacia gains on Q3 numbers; Aggreko keeps sliding

London’s FTSE 250 was down 0.1% to 17,930.64 in afternoon trade.

Acacia Mining was the standout gainer after it reported a sharp drop in its third-quarter operating costs, which contributed to a near-doubling of its cash even as it raised its full-year guidance for output.

Ground engineering group Keller was on the front foot, recovering from hefty losses in the previous session, when it warned that its full-year 2016 underlying results will be around 15% below current market expectations, mainly due to underperformance in the Asia Pacific division.

In a trading update for the third quarter, the company said the APAC division incurred further operating losses due to ongoing difficult market conditions.

On the downside, temporary power provider Aggreko suffered heavy losses for the second day in a row after Credit Suisse downgraded the stock on Thursday, to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’, pointing to increasing competition risks.

Hunting was in the red after UBS initiated coverage of the oilfield services company at ‘neutral’ as it expressed caution over the European sector.

“Oil companies are determined to keep a tight rein on capex and projects that reach sanctioning are likely to be competitively bid, impacting service sector margins and returns,” it said.

Homeserve was weaker, giving back some ground after it rallied in the previous session on a double upgrade to ‘overweight’ from Barclays. The bank also lifted its price target on the stock by a whopping 170% to 695p after visiting the company’s UK and US operations in the last couple of months.

Risers

Acacia Mining (ACA) 523.50p 11.57%
IP Group (IPO) 154.80p 10.26%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 138.80p 4.83%
Keller Group (KLR) 666.00p 3.34%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 236.20p 2.96%
SSP Group (SSPG) 342.00p 2.64%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 152.90p 2.62%
Evraz (EVR) 205.50p 2.44%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,578.00p 2.27%
Softcat (SCT) 337.90p 1.78%

Fallers

NCC Group (NCC) 210.00p -5.83%
Aggreko (AGK) 816.00p -4.90%
JRP Group (JRP) 121.70p -4.25%
Hunting (HTG) 535.00p -3.95%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 492.50p -3.34%
Homeserve (HSV) 604.00p -2.89%
Countrywide (CWD) 202.50p -2.83%
AO World (AO.) 175.30p -2.61%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,560.00p -2.20%
Ibstock (IBST) 162.80p -2.10%