FTSE 250 movers: Entertainment One deal boosts share price

The FTSE 250 was up on the back of Wednesday night’s rate hike from the Federal Reserve, up 122.43 points (0.72%) to 17,198.37 by mid-afternoon Thursday.

Entertainment One surged over 5% after it announced it had extended its output agreement with DreamWorks Pictures through the creation of a new partnership. Along with some of the biggest names in the film industry including Steven Spielberg, the FTSE 250 company has joined a new film, television and digital content creation company - Amblin Partners. The new partnership will see Entertainment One expand its film distribution network, handling the direct distribution of the partnership's films on a multi-territory output basis including the UK, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. As part of the deal, the company will also hold a small equity stake in Amblin Partners. The new partnership will create content under the Amblin, DreamWorks Pictures and Participant brands, while Amblin Television will also become a division of it.

Domino’s Pizza Group was smelling good to investors after Berenberg upgraded it from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’. On top of strong numbers in its third quarter update in October, the pizza chain has taken a one-third stake in a joint venture with Australian-listed Domino's Pizza Enterprises to purchase Joey's Pizza in Germany. The chain has 212 stores across the country and reports annual sales of €143m (£103.9m). The plan also allows the UK-listed Domino’s to restructure its current loss-making German operation.

Investec continued to rebound as political issues in South Africa subsided. A weaker rand weighed on the stock on Thursday last week, after South Africa's president unexpectedly sacked finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, replacing him with relatively unknown David van Rooyen. He has since been replaced with Pravin Gordhan, the country's third finance minister in a week and a man who held the post between 2009 and 2014. That move restored some confidence to the market since the beginning of the week.

And oil prices continued to sink on concerns of an oversupply, hitting oil and gas companies on Thursday. Data out on Wednesday revealed an expectedly large build in US oil stocks in the latest week, compared to analysts' forecast for a draw. Commercial US oil inventories rose by 4.8m barrels over the five days ending on 11 December to reach 490.7m, according to the Energy Information Administration, the Department of Energy´s statistical arm. That led Premier Oil to lead the fallers, and Nostrum Oil & Gas to feature in the bottom ten.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 124.00p 6.90%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 179.60p 5.21%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 1,041.00p 5.15%
Man Group (EMG) 168.70p 5.11%
Investec (INVP) 475.40p 4.94%
Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 359.80p 4.59%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 363.40p 4.58%
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 298.20p 4.27%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 334.70p 4.07%
Jupiter Fund Management (JUP) 459.90p 3.19%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Premier Oil (PMO) 45.07p -8.26%
Elementis (ELM) 220.90p -6.68%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 160.10p -4.19%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 217.00p -3.77%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 349.30p -3.37%
Greene King (GNK) 921.50p -3.05%
Marston's (MARS) 164.50p -3.01%
Halfords Group (HFD) 328.10p -2.84%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 437.40p -2.71%
Hunting (HTG) 280.90p -2.57%