FTSE 250 movers: Intu falls, Hill & Smith higher

London’s FTSE 250 was down 1.55% at 19,953.86 in afternoon trade on Monday, with Intu Properties leading the index lower as commodity producers dominated the top movers.

Shares in the shopping mall operator have been on the back foot since last week, when it axed its interim dividend in a bid to strengthen its balance sheet amid intense pressure on its assets and income performance due to a challenging retail environment.

Premier Oil, Hunting and Weir Group were a drag on the index as oil prices slipped after trade talks between Beijing and Washington stalled and the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25%.

Stephen Innes, managing director of VM Markets Singapore, said: "Oil prices will remain a reaction function to trade war sentiment as its increasingly clear that this is the dominant factor shaping opinion on oil prices after the latest tariff escalation. Fashioning views on the outcome or duration of the US-China trade dispute is more guesswork than science so that market participants will be held hostage by headline risk."

Kaz Minerals was also on the back foot as copper and iron ore prices slumped amid the possibility of a fresh exchange of tariffs between the US and China.

Up at the other end of the index, Hill & Smith topped the risers ahead of the release of its second quarter earnings release on Wednesday.

Precious metals miners Hochschild Mining, Centamin, Polymetal International and Acacia Mining also bucked the downward trend, with gold prices on the rise as investors opted for somewhere safe to park their cash.

Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM, said: "We don’t think that this trade war will do any good to President Trump in the upcoming election, especially given the several swing states that are already hurt by the current trade dispute. Until then expect volatility to return to global financial markets with safe haven assets to be the main beneficiaries. Out of all safe haven assets, Gold will be our favorite, especially if this trade war gets out of hand."

Finally, Pets at Home climbed after analysts at Goldman Sachs hiked their target price for the stock from 140p to 155p after the pet care retailer last week reported that full-year underlying earnings looked set to come in ahead of market expectations.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,953.86 -1.55%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,090.00p 3.22%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 206.28p 2.12%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 117.60p 2.08%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 132.00p 1.97%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,003.00p 1.85%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 219.80p 1.67%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 229.96p 1.66%
4Imprint Group (FOUR) 2,930.00p 1.38%
NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP (NBLS) 90.70p 1.23%
PPHE Hotel Group Ltd (PPH) 1,840.00p 1.10%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Intu Properties (INTU) 39.61p -8.05%
SIG (SHI) 120.20p -6.97%
PayPoint (PAY) 930.00p -6.34%
Premier Oil (PMO) 70.78p -5.35%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 486.10p -5.17%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 565.40p -4.88%
Hunting (HTG) 438.60p -4.65%
Playtech (PTEC) 413.40p -4.57%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,314.50p -4.47%
Metro Bank (MTRO) 317.60p -4.45%