FTSE 250 movers: Bwin boosted by 888 holdings acquisition, miners lower

Mid-caps were subdued on Friday as strong performances from telecoms, financials and insurers were offset by losses in the transport, mining and retail sectors.

As of 16:00 BST, the FTSE 250 was trading flat at 17,743.

Aldermore Group topped the risers on news that the Bank of England may raise interest rates by the end of the year.

Bwin.party Digital Entertainment was on the up as online gambling group 888 Holdings agreed to buy the stock in a cash and stock deal worth around £898.3m, beating a rival offer from GVC.

Bwin shareholders will receive 39.45p and 0.404 new 888 shares for each share they own.

The offer represents a value of around 104.9p per Bwin share, which is a premium of approximately 16.4% cent to the closing price of Bwin on 14 May, which is the last business day before Bwin announced talks about a possible tie-up.

Sector peer Betfair was also higher on the news.

Ocado topped the fallers following a downgrade from analysts at UBS. The bank said it was supportive of the online grocery store’s business model but the delay in announcing a new partner did not help validate the model.

“Deriving fair value on stock like Ocado with little in the way of short-term cash flow, profit or obvious global peers is more art than science,” analyst Andrew Gwynn said.

Restaurant Group was also hit by negative broker sentiment, with the Frankie & Benny's and Chiquito's owner downgraded to 'hold' from 'buy' by broker Nomura.

Miners Polymetal International and Acacia Mining were trading in the red as metal prices continued to decline across the board.

Meanwhile falling oil prices took their toll of Premier Oil and Ophir Energy.

Risers
Aldermore Group (ALD) 261.30p +5.79%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 166.00p +3.88%
Just Eat (JE.) 439.50p +2.93%
Betfair Group (BET) 2,580.00p +2.14%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 143.40p +2.06%
Foxtons Group (FOXT) 232.80p +1.88%
SSP Group (SSPG) 306.30p +1.86%
Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 397.80p +1.74%
Britvic (BVIC) 739.50p +1.72%
Savills (SVS) 981.50p +1.71%

Fallers
Ocado Group (OCDO) 434.70p -6.52%
Polymetal International (POLY) 479.40p -3.93%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 275.10p -3.51%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 569.00p -3.40%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 667.00p -2.91%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,333.00p -2.84%
Premier Oil (PMO) 143.40p -2.52%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 1,107.00p -2.47%
Halfords Group (HFD) 535.00p -2.46%
Bellway (BWY) 2,288.00p -2.22%