FTSE 250 movers: Just Group on the rise but Supergroup drops

London's FTSE 250 was up 0.1% to 19,370.18 in afternoon trade.

Just Group was the standout gainer as Numis put out a positive note on the stock following the company's Guaranteed Income for Life seminar for equity analysts and investors on Thursday.

"The company gave an upbeat presentation, highlighting five new growth opportunities," it said.

On the downside, Supergroup slumped after it was forced to release highlights of its preliminary results on Thursday as an external party may have had sight of a draft of the numbers following a random theft from an employee.

The Superdry owner, which was due to release the full results on Monday, said underlying pre-tax profit for the 52 weeks was up 18.4% to £87m on revenue of £752m, up 27.4% on the previous year. Meanwhile, like-for-like sales rose 12.7%.

JD Sports was under the cosh for the second day running after the retailer hinted at margin pressure and said it was on track to meet market expectations for the full year.

Service company Serco retreated after confirming full-year expectations and saying adjusted pre-tax profit for the first half will be lower than last year.

In a pre-close trading update ahead of its first-half results on 3 August, the group said it expects to report revenue of around £1.5bn for the first half, down around 8% from the year before, and underlying trading profit of approximately £35m compared to £51m in the first half of last year but similar to the £31m reported in the second half of 2016.

Risers

Just Group (JUST) 130.50p 2.51%
Softcat (SCT) 386.60p 2.46%
Evraz (EVR) 209.10p 2.45%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 293.60p 2.44%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 573.00p 2.41%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 840.00p 2.31%
Renishaw (RSW) 3,626.00p 2.28%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 864.50p 1.95%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 272.50p 1.79%
Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 341.60p 1.79%

Fallers

IP Group (IPO) 131.70p -4.91%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,480.00p -4.27%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 30.40p -3.49%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 352.40p -3.24%
Northgate (NTG) 438.20p -2.95%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 746.00p -2.42%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 483.00p -2.23%
Serco Group (SRP) 116.00p -2.03%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 178.90p -2.03%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 150.70p -2.02%