FTSE 250 movers: Gold miners surge while travel firms sink

The FTSE 250 was trading well into the red on Wednesday afternoon, as concerns about Brexit continued to drag on investor sentiment.

Precious metals miners led the charge, as gold prices continued to soar amid global jitters, primarily caused by Brexit.

Gold jumped to its highest price since March 2014 on Tuesday, with investors looking for safe havens as markets - particularly those in Europe - showed stronger signs of stalling.

Gold for August delivery was up 1.5% to $1,358.70 per troy ounce on the Comex at close on Tuesday.

Hochschild Mining, Centamin, Acacia Mining and Polymetal International were all among the index’s top risers.

“We’re still quite optimistic towards the gold outlook, because Brexit means that global investors face protracted uncertainty,” said BOCI Global Commodities head of commodity markets Xiao Fu.

On the downside, shares in Tullow Oil slumped after it revealed its latest plan to deal with its $4.5bn-high pile of debt.

The exploration firm said it will offer $300m of convertible bonds to diversify its funding, and provide a thin layer of insulation against the roller coaster crude market.

“The proposed convertible bond issue will further diversify Tullow Oil’s sources of funding and give the company access to a new investor base,” said the company’s finance chief Ian Springett.

“As per our most recent trading statement, our focus will continue to be on strengthening the balance sheet and deleveraging the business.”

But analysts were quick to point out the move could cause an equity issue for the company.

“Given that we believe that the company is turning a corner, any weakness today should be seen as an opportunity to buy the dollar-earner ahead of a material increase in production and free cash flow in the second half of 2016,” said Al Stanton of RBC Capital.

Housebuilder Redrow was also under pressure, a day after announcing it had won a deal to build 200 homes on Britain’s largest new housing suburb in Cambridgeshire.

And the travel sector was feeling the heat of Brexit, with both Thomas Cook and Wizz Air among the biggest losers in afternoon trading.

Sentiment in the industry has been severely affected by the EU vote, with a WYSE Travel Confederation Brexit Survey showing a majority of the EU-based members it talked to expect their overall business prospects to get worse or much worse.

“Companies sending travellers to the UK or receiving UK travellers abroad were very pessimistic about the potential effect that Brexit could have on their business,” WYSE Travel Confederation said in a statement.

The fall for Thomas Cook also came just a day after the company celebrated its 175th birthday - and the 175th anniversary of the first package holiday.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Hochschild Mining (HOC) 221.70p 9.37%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 160.10p 8.91%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 526.00p 5.71%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 446.20p 4.99%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,126.00p 3.97%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,058.00p 3.89%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,019.00p 2.16%
Synthomer (SYNT) 326.70p 1.78%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 1,155.00p 1.67%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 343.30p 1.66%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Tullow Oil (TLW) 205.10p -14.75%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 1,212.00p -8.53%
Clarkson (CKN) 1,653.00p -7.91%
Softcat (SCT) 281.00p -6.33%
Redrow (RDW) 273.60p -6.27%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,503.00p -6.06%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 203.60p -6.05%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 104.70p -6.01%
Allied Minds (ALM) 303.30p -5.92%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 54.85p -5.84%