FTSE 250 movers: Copper stocks rally but gold producers slump

The FTSE 250 index rose 0.79% to 17,729.56 in afternoon trade.

Construction company Hill & Smith Holdings and copper miners Evraz, Vedanta Resources and Kaz Minerals were all in the black following Trump’s pledge to boost US infrastructure spending on Wednesday. The copper stocks in particular got a lift, as prices of the metal rallied hard.

Vedanta Resources also released positive half year results and plans to expand on its production.

Supergroup surged after the owner of clothing brand Superdry reported a bigger-than-expected jump in first-half revenue and said it expects full-year profit to be in line with market expectations of £84.6m.

Cloud-enabled end user and network security solutions provider Sophos Group rose after it reported that its like-for-like billings went up by 15.1% year-on-year to $282.3m.

On the downside, however, gold miner Centamin fell as gold prices gave back the gains made in the brief flight to safety following Trump’s victory on Wednesday.

Transport company Go-ahead went ex-dividend on Thursday, sending its stock lower.

Water utility and waste management company Pennon was weaker, reversing course after an upgrade by Credit Suisse boosted its shares in the previous session.

Risers

Evraz (EVR) 255.70p 14.30%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 892.50p 14.28%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 353.30p 10.89%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,604.00p 10.85%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,258.00p 8.64%
Laird (LRD) 140.50p 7.83%
Keller Group (KLR) 784.00p 7.18%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 251.00p 6.95%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 457.70p 6.84%
Hunting (HTG) 496.80p 6.82%

Fallers

Acacia Mining (ACA) 515.00p -5.07%
Halfords Group (HFD) 327.00p -4.86%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 157.80p -3.96%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 2,059.00p -3.74%
Pennon Group (PNN) 787.50p -3.55%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 739.50p -2.83%
William Hill (WMH) 284.80p -2.47%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 640.50p -2.36%
NMC Health (NMC) 1,377.00p -2.06%
Paysafe Group (PAYS) 412.40p -2.00%