FTSE 250 movers: Broader rebound outweighs ongoing housing rout

The FTSE 250 continued to rally on Thursday alongside its blue chip sibling as a broad-based rebound across sectors outweighed continued softness for housing-related stocks after the Brexit vote.

Half an hour before the close, the FTSE 250 was up 0.65% to 16,106.31.

Some of the rebounds may be temporary, notably short covering, said Capital Economics.

"More positively, though, we think that the markets are right to recognise that Brexit, and especially some form of Brexit-lite, would not be as damaging as so many were arguing ahead of the referendum."

Esure was a high riser after a report suggested it was being circled by private equity firms and overseas insurance group amid signs founder Peter Wood may be willing to sell his 30% shareholding.

Buyout groups, Sky News said, have been exploring takeover bids for Esure in recent weeks. But Esure said it has not received an approach and “continues to focus on its strategic review of Gocompare.com", announced on 7 June, "and will announce the results of the strategic review in due course”.

Sky had said it was unclear on whether any formal approaches have been made to Esure's board since its 7 June statement, or whether KKR's interest continued to be active. Nevertheless the shares hung onto most of their initial spike.

Network security solutions company Sophos continued to rise for a second day after on Wednesday reporting strong first quarter trading with billings above board expectations, as part of its inaugural 'capital markets day'. The FTSE 250 firm said like-for-like billings growth is expected to be in the range of 20% to 23% year-over-year.

On Thursday several analysts had positive comments, with broker Peel Hunt said it continued to believe that the company is "well positioned within the cybersecurity industry" and that the strategy of using a channel sales model is "showing strong positive signs". JP Morgan and UBS also issued positive notes.

CLS Holdings was a strong riser as the London-centric property investor's broker completed its share buyback programme.

Ocado was up, helped by a 'buy' rating from Goldman Sachs, which noted key metrics were still improving despite industry pressure and updated estimates post interim results. "Though our EBITDA estimates fall circa 5%-7%, underlying metrics continue to improve, with EBITDA margins up circa 50bp as listed peers have fallen circa 260 basis points over the last five years."

Fallers, which were led by PayPoint as it went ex-dividend, also included brick maker Ibstock, residential property websites Zoopla Property, Rightmove, housebuilders Crest Nicholson and Bellway.

Aldermore Group, one of several challenger banks to have suffered badly since the EU referendum result, continued to crater.

A note from Barclays saw a near-halving of its target price to 120p. Barclays also cut its target for OneSavings 40% to 205p, though the stock rose 7% to 211.97p, while Shawbrook was cut 50% to 160p the share price closed the day nearly flat at 170.50p.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Softcat (SCT) 327.20p 9.07%
esure Group (ESUR) 281.90p 8.21%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 355.10p 6.10%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,403.00p 5.89%
Evraz (EVR) 138.00p 5.75%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 481.40p 5.73%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,594.00p 5.56%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 234.30p 5.54%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 208.00p 5.48%
Indivior (INDV) 250.30p 4.51%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

PayPoint (PAY) 896.50p -7.48%
Allied Minds (ALM) 349.50p -6.22%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 251.90p -5.94%
Ibstock (IBST) 130.80p -5.70%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 114.50p -5.37%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 173.70p -4.24%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 230.10p -3.92%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 350.50p -3.79%
Redrow (RDW) 308.80p -3.77%
Rightmove (RMV) 3,578.00p -3.69%