FTSE 250 movers: JD Sports, Balfour Beatty pace gains

Shares in JD Sports were at the top of the of the leaderboard for the second tier index in afternoon trading after the company posted annual profits before tax that were up 56%.

Management also sounded a confident note on growth prospects for the sports fashion goods retailer in 2017, despite the anticipated impact of inflationary headwinds on margins.

Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty was right behind, benefiting from an upgrade out of broker Bank of America-Merrill Lynch from 'Neutral' to 'Buy'.

They cited greater confidence on the outlook for the company's margins in the US, UK and Hong Kong.

"The US construction outlook has improved, and while Brexit casts a shadow on the UK, the pipeline of infrastructure projects could provide an offset," BofA-Merrill said.

Precious metals miners were bid higher after North Korea warned that it would react to any aggressions by the US, giving gold futures a boost worth 1.67% to $1,274.80/oz..

In turn, that lifted stock the likes of Hochschild Mining, Acacia Mining and Polymetal.

Headed in the other direction were some of the junior oil explorers, such as Cairn Energy and Tullow Oil as crude futures slipped back.

As of 1616 GMT front month Brent crude oil futures were down 0.58% at $55.66 a barrel in ICE trading.

On a related note, analysts at Barclays cut their Brent oil price forecasts on Tuesday.

Analyst James Hosie lowered his assumptions for the price of Brent in 2017 and 2018 from $57 and $70 a barrel to $56 and $67 a barrel, respectively.

From 2019 onwards, he now saw Brent at $60 a barrel, down from $70 before.

Following on from the above, Hosie trimmed his target price for shares of Cairn from 295p to 270p.

FTSE 250 - Risers

JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 441.80p 8.66%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 284.50p 5.14%
Sanne Group (SNN) 733.50p 4.19%
Hays (HAS) 163.20p 3.42%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 6,640.00p 3.03%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,075.00p 2.87%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 475.30p 2.77%
Just Eat (JE.) 572.00p 2.51%
Pagegroup (PAGE) 444.50p 2.33%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 282.80p 2.09%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Ibstock (IBST) 198.00p -4.12%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 229.90p -3.77%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 206.30p -3.33%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 319.80p -3.09%
Northgate (NTG) 524.00p -2.69%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 808.00p -2.30%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 361.80p -2.06%
IP Group (IPO) 141.20p -1.94%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 463.30p -1.88%
Hunting (HTG) 584.00p -1.85%