FTSE 250 movers: Kier and Balfour Beatty caught in Carillion crossfire

The FTSE 250 struggled in the red throughout Monday due to the huge decline of Carillion and a gloomy cloud over the retail sector.

Carillion issued a profits warning, suspended its dividend and puts further businesses on the block, with chief executive Richard Howson falling on his sword as part of the corporate contrition. With revenue at the construction and infrastructure support services group continuing to fall, the group’s target of cutting debt this year has been shelved, with the focus moving to improving short term cashflow ahead of a full review in September. "Long-standing Carillion bears, and these are legion, given the stock’s position as one of the most heavily shorted on the London market, finally got their reward today," said market analyst Chris Beauchamp at IG. "Clearly the only hope now appears to be a rescue bid, although the firm looks an uncertain bet even if it is 40% cheaper than last week."

With Carillion warning of contract delays, fellow companies with construction and infrastructure bent such as Kier Group, Balfour Beatty and Marshalls were caught in the cross fire from investors.

Retailer Dunelm was down alongside several other sector players such as Next, M&S and Ocado as fresh survey data showed households continued to show caution on spending. UK consumer spending fell for the second month in a row in June, Visa said, dropping to its lowest quarterly level for three and a half years.

There was a 5.8% decline for transport & communication, a 3.4% fall for household goods, a first monthly drop for recreation & culture in four years and and a much smaller dip for clothing & footwear than than the previous month's five-year plunge.

Wizz Air was a riser alongside some larger peers in expectation of lower costs ahead. Commodities analysts at BNP Paribas slashed their oil forecasts for 2017 and 2018 as rising output from the US, Nigeria and Libya offsets the impact of attempts to limit production by Opec.

This also saw oil producer Tullow Oil, which due to its heavy leverage remains highly influenced by moves in oil prices, among the main fallers.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,369.27 0.25%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,328.16 -0.35%
techMARK (TASX) 3,502.28 -0.06%

FTSE 100 - Risers

BAE Systems (BA.) 629.50p 1.94%
Schroders (SDR) 3,214.00p 1.81%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 739.90p 1.61%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 642.50p 1.18%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,435.00p 1.13%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 811.80p 1.12%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 635.00p 1.11%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,561.00p 1.10%
Royal Mail (RMG) 414.80p 1.10%
Unilever (ULVR) 4,222.00p 1.05%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 336.90p -2.21%
Shire Plc (SHP) 4,231.00p -2.16%
Provident Financial (PFG) 2,326.00p -1.94%
Next (NXT) 3,703.00p -1.67%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 859.50p -1.66%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 720.50p -1.44%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 263.50p -1.35%
G4S (GFS) 324.00p -1.07%
Whitbread (WTB) 3,810.00p -0.86%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,410.00p -0.70%

FTSE 250 - Risers

JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust (JII) 739.50p 2.42%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 2,564.00p 2.31%
Softcat (SCT) 384.90p 1.69%
Inchcape (INCH) 770.00p 1.65%
Spirax-Sarco Engineering (SPX) 5,460.00p 1.49%
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 703.00p 1.44%
Pagegroup (PAGE) 482.20p 1.41%
Mitie Group (MTO) 273.60p 1.33%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 262.90p 1.31%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,336.00p 1.21%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Carillion (CLLN) 123.40p -35.76%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 585.00p -5.65%
Sanne Group (SNN) 640.50p -3.83%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 147.30p -3.47%
Marshalls (MSLH) 373.00p -2.79%
Kier Group (KIE) 1,209.00p -2.66%
Balfour Beatty (BBY) 259.20p -2.63%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,081.00p -2.61%
Aggreko (AGK) 852.50p -2.57%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 276.80p -2.57%