FTSE 250 movers: Miners climb while Nostrum Oil and Gas slips

The FTSE 250 index rose 0.26% to 18,190.37 in the late afternoon.

The UK’s largest food wholesale operator Booker Group gained as it reached an agreement to merge with supermarket giant Tesco. Under the terms of the merger, each Booker scheme shareholder would receive 0.861 new Tesco shares and 42.6p in cash, representing a value of £3.7bn for Booker’s ordinary share capital.

Gold miners Acacia Mining, Hochschild Mining and Centamin bounced back from previous losses and may have gained on the back of news that Swiss gold exports to China rose over 400% in run up to the Lunar New Year with lower gold prices serving to support new demand.

Kaz Minerals and Ferrexpo was on the front foot as the prices of copper and steel rose marginally by 0.02% and iron ore to 82.4/t from $82/t.

British engineering company Renishaw was given a boost on Friday after Numis upgraded its rating on the engineering company to ‘buy’ from ‘add’ and raised the target price to 3,500p from 3,000p. The FTSE 250 firm on Thursday reported revenue increased to £240m in the six months ended 31 December 2016 from £198m the same period a year ago, supported by underlying growth of 12% and a foreign exchange benefit of 9%. Pre-tax profit rose to £35.6m from £28.5m.

Nostrum Oil and Gas and energy focused investment company Riverstone Energy were on the back foot as oil prices dropped by around 1% with West Texas Intermediate at $53.17 per barrel and brent crude at $55.47.

Risers
Booker Group (BOK) 215.10p 17.48%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 150.70p 5.09%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 412.80p 4.74%
Zoopla Property Group (ZPLA) 364.00p 3.94%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 236.80p 3.23%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 452.00p 2.84%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 144.10p 2.78%
Evraz (EVR) 230.20p 2.77%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 496.10p 2.06%
Renishaw (RSW) 2,849.00p 1.93%

Fallers
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 442.40p -5.79%
Carillion (CLLN) 219.50p -3.43%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 284.90p -3.00%
Berendsen (BRSN) 832.50p -2.75%
Henderson Group (HGG) 221.80p -2.46%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 148.70p -2.24%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 1,280.00p -2.14%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 1,137.00p -1.98%
NewRiver REIT (NRR) 316.60p -1.80%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 449.50p -1.77%