FTSE 250 movers: Amec surges on Wood Group deal; Homeserve slumps on downgrade
London's FTSE 250 was up 0.3% to 19,023.55 in afternoon trade, with M&A injecting some excitement into Monday's session.
Shares in Amec Foster Wheeler rocketed as it agreed the terms of an all-share offer from oilfield services company Wood Group that values the engineer at around £2.2bn.
Amec shareholders will receive 0.75 new Wood Group shares for each of their shares. This represents a value of around 564p per Amec share and a premium of around 15.3% to the closing price of Amec's shares on Friday.
Housebuilder Bovis Homes surged as it said it was in merger talks with Galliford Try, after it rejected a £1bn offer from Redrow.
Hochschild, Kaz Minerals, Centamin and Vedanta Resources were on the front foot as base and precious metals prices advanced.
Shipping broker Clarkson traded higher as it said interim prospects remained challenging with signs of a pick-up in the medium term as it reported a fall in full year underlying pre-tax profits to £44.8m from £50.5m.
On the downside, Homeserve shares tanked as Jefferies downgraded the stock to 'underperform' from 'hold' and slashed the price target to 460p from 560p.
Jefferies said that with the US growth potential largely priced in, it is concerned about momentum in the UK over the next 12-18 months driven not just by a doubling of insurance premium tax but due to prescriptive changes mandated by the FCA on policy renewals.
Investors lost the taste for Domino's Pizza shares after Citigroup downgraded its stance on the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy' and cut the price target to 350p from 480p as it pointed to premium multiples and slowing like-for-like sales.
Specialty pharmaceutical company Indivior was under the cosh after RBC Capital Markets cut the stock 'sector perform' from 'outperform' noting the 2016 results were in line with expectations but 2017 guidance was cautious.
Risers
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 554.00p 13.25%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 914.00p 10.39%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 258.70p 8.70%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 480.00p 5.56%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 169.80p 4.56%
Saga (SAGA) 201.70p 4.18%
G4S (GFS) 306.00p 3.87%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 814.00p 3.30%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,580.00p 3.20%
JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust (JII) 685.00p 2.85%
Fallers
Homeserve (HSV) 523.50p -6.52%
Evraz (EVR) 201.40p -5.45%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 330.40p -4.67%
Indivior (INDV) 328.80p -4.59%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 267.60p -4.39%
IP Group (IPO) 151.80p -3.68%
AA (AA.) 261.60p -3.65%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 126.30p -3.29%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,093.00p -2.50%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 3,361.00p -2.21%