FTSE 250 movers: Amec, Centamin and Tullow lead the way; McCarthy, Weir out of favour

The midcap FTSE 250 index was in positive territory on Wednesday afternoon, up 0.71% to 17,066.55 at 1331 BST.

Rising commodities prices helped Centamin lead the risers, up almost 5%. Tullow Oil joined the fun with a 3.87% leap on the day.

Amec Foster Wheeler shares were cheered by news the company had appointed 20-year Halliburton veteran Dr Jon Lewis as its new chief executive, although it also reported a decline in first-quarter sales.

In the three months to the end of March, the engineering group generated revenue of £1.3bn, which was down 1.5% against last year's result, and 3.1% lower on a like-for-like basis and adjusting for currency.

The order book stood had also contracted to £6.4bn at the end of March from £6.6bn at the year end, excluding $500m of projects on which its Global Power Group (GPG) had been selected as the supplier but which none of which has received go-ahead from customers so far this year.

Retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone fell almost 6% after major shareholders offloaded a 15.8% stake in the company in a placing.

Weir Group’s shares were under pressure on Wednesday after Canaccord Genuity downgraded its rating on the stock to ‘sell’ from ‘hold’ and cut its price target to 880p from 940p.

Canaccord said it was lowering its earnings per share forecasts for 2016, 2017 and 2018, ahead of the engineering group’s trading update on Thursday.

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 106.10p 4.95%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 506.00p 4.22%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 252.20p 3.87%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 289.70p 3.84%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 297.00p 3.77%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 964.50p 3.54%
NCC Group (NCC) 265.90p 3.46%
Indivior (INDV) 171.30p 3.44%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 802.00p 3.35%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 244.30p 3.34%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 235.90p -5.83%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,115.00p -3.63%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 258.30p -3.62%
Polar Capital Technology Trust (PCT) 570.00p -2.90%
Essentra (ESNT) 823.50p -1.67%
Elementis (ELM) 226.80p -1.61%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 1,299.00p -1.59%
Cobham (COB) 174.80p -1.58%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 179.20p -1.54%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,600.00p -1.32%