FTSE 250 movers: Banks surge as Brexit fears ease

The FTSE 250 was ahead in afternoon trading on Monday, as the latest EU referendum polls revealed a shift in support.

Banks and financial firms were leading the rally, with Shawbrook Group, Virgin Money Holdings and Metro Bank all featuring near the top of the index.

They were following the lead of their larger counterparts in the FTSE 100, including Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland.

It came after opinion polls published over the weekend suggested a resurgence in support for the ‘Remain’ camp of the EU referendum, being held on Thursday.

“If the UK votes to remain in the EU, there will clearly be a short term market rebound, especially given the weakness seen over the past two weeks,” said JP Morgan equity strategist Mislav Matejka.

“This would potentially take the market back to the levels from beginning of June, when the Euro STOXX 50 was around 3,050 points.”

Britain-focused banks were among the hardest hit last week, when opinion polls began showing a swing towards the ‘Leave’ vote.

Also among the top risers was Evraz, after it emerged that it has agreed a delay to the planned transaction with Bushveld Minerals.

AIM-traded Bushveld had agreed to purchase Strategic Minerals Corporation, which owns the producing Vametco vanadium mine in South Africa.

“Bushveld and Evraz Group have agreed that completion of the initial tranche shall be delayed, and now expect completion to take place on or before 15 July,” Bushveld’s board said in a statement.

On the bottom of the FTSE 250 pile was Circassia Pharmaceuticals, whose share price plummeted more than 65% by late afternoon.

The biopharmaceutical development company had pinned its hopes on a promising cat allergy immunotherapy.

On Monday morning, however, Circassia revealed some seriously disappointing results from its phase III study, in which the drug performed no better than a placebo.

“We are surprised and disappointed by these results,” said Circassia chief executive Steve Harris.

“Such a dramatic placebo effect was not a feature of our earlier phase II studies.

“However, in this large-scale trial it eliminated the ability to identify a treatment effect despite dramatic improvements in subjects' allergy symptoms and rescue medication use,” he explained.

Miners of precious metals were also under pressure as investors moved back to riskier assets with the easing of Brexit risks - both Centamin and Acacia Mining were among the bottom of the index.

Acacia was down even after it had its ‘but’ rating reiterated by Deutsche Bank, in which analysts slapped a target price of 340p on the stock, indicating a potential modest upside of 1.07%.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,199.24 2.96%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,940.74 3.16%
techMARK (TASX) 3,048.91 2.80%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 238.20p 7.25%
Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,318.00p 7.24%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 188.50p 7.10%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 69.63p 7.04%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 568.50p 6.96%
Barclays (BARC) 176.60p 6.55%
St James's Place (STJ) 875.00p 6.19%
Aviva (AV.) 430.70p 5.85%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 506.00p 5.79%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 418.60p 5.65%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,450.00p -2.42%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,210.00p -1.39%
Rexam (REX) 627.50p -0.32%
SABMiller (SAB) 4,285.00p 0.69%
Carnival (CCL) 3,435.00p 0.97%
BP (BP.) 378.00p 1.30%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,117.50p 1.58%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 2,180.00p 1.58%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,856.00p 1.66%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,041.00p 1.77%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 275.80p 14.92%
Evraz (EVR) 121.50p 11.37%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 351.00p 8.60%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 323.40p 8.05%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 296.20p 7.51%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 205.20p 7.43%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 68.35p 7.38%
Serco Group (SRP) 110.90p 7.36%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 1,330.00p 7.34%
NCC Group (NCC) 268.30p 7.32%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Circassia Pharmaceuticals (CIR) 94.50p -65.04%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 108.60p -2.34%
IP Group (IPO) 166.10p -0.84%
Vectura Group (VEC) 156.20p -0.51%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 335.00p -0.42%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 429.30p -0.16%
BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 1,944.00p -0.15%
P2P Global Investments (P2P) 849.00p -0.06%
Softcat (SCT) 340.00p -0.00%
Ascential (ASCL) 268.10p 0.04%