FTSE 250 movers: Go Ahead hits buffers; N Brown update in fashion

Go-Ahead shares were going nowhere on Thursday after commuters on Britain’s largest railway franchise were lumped with the promise of more misery this week, as conductors on the Southern arm of Govia Thameslink Railway announced a strike, set down for next Tuesday.

The railway franchise - a joint venture 65% owned by Go-Ahead - currently sees hundreds of trains cancelled daily, averaging five times as many cancellations as the second-worst performing operator.

Shares in N Brown led the risers after a trading update that was nohere near as bad as analysts has been fearing, lifting shares from their four-year low with management confident that a second half improvement will see the clothing retailer hit its full year targets.

Group revenue was down 0.2% in the first quarter, with the analysts consensus having pointed to a 2% fall.

Shares in design, engineering and project management consultancy WS Atkins were also in the black after the firm reported a 6% rise in revenue in its final results on Thursday, to £1.86bn.

The FTSE 250 firm posted underlying operating profit of £148.2m, up 10.5%, achieving its 8% margin target at the same time.

Restaurant Group led the fallers, followed not far behind by Indivior, as both were among stocks going ex-dividend on Thursday.

Restaurant Group, operator of Frankie & Benny's, Garfunkel's and Chiquito eatery chains, could also have been dented by news that trading at larger UK pubs and restaurant groups slowed in May, with like-for-like sales down 1.4% year-on-year as a hefty decline at casual dining chains outweighed a small improvement for pubs.

Findings from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker were the biggest one-month decrease in well over two years and showed the sector has founding it increasingly tough in recent months, with sales worsening from the 0.8% decline seen in April.

William Hill was down after a downgrade from Investec to 'reduce' from 'add'. This helped send the bookmaker's shares to their lowest point since the first half of 2012.

Analysts see 2017 estimates at risk in a "bleak outlook" as the UK's biggest retail bookie is being hurt by management upheaval, tighter regulations, tech issues and new measures to help problem gamblers, Investec said.

Challenger banks Aldermore and Shawbrook were down alongside their larger banking peers, continuing a recent theme as markets fret over record low interest rates and the risk of a Brexit vote next week, which is seen as putting banking stocks particularly at risks.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,148.14 -0.92%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 228.80p 6.72%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 116.40p 5.63%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 1,263.00p 4.99%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 994.50p 4.68%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 112.90p 3.39%
Safestore Holdings (SAFE) 353.60p 3.30%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,508.00p 1.89%
Henderson Group (HGG) 240.80p 1.56%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 346.50p 1.40%
Rank Group (RNK) 231.00p 1.23%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Restaurant Group (RTN) 315.70p -7.66%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 176.20p -6.62%
William Hill (WMH) 275.50p -6.07%
Indivior (INDV) 215.00p -5.45%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 131.50p -5.26%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 220.10p -4.88%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,993.00p -4.73%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 232.50p -4.32%
NMC Health (NMC) 1,048.00p -4.29%
Evraz (EVR) 119.90p -4.16%