FTSE 250 movers: Oil stocks rise, TalkTalk falls on dissapointing outlook

The news that BP had slashed its investment budget for this year by $4bn-6bn gave crude prices a boost, and in turn oil stocks, as the commodity extended gains made over the last few days on speculation of slowing output. Brent rose 3.9% to $56.86 a barrel, lifted further by ongoing strikes at oil refineries in the States.

As a result, Afren, Premier Oil and Soco International were rising strongly. Energy services group Hunting was higher after Nomura upgraded its rating on the stock to ‘neutral’.

TalkTalk slipped after revealing that despite a strong third quarter, full-year earnings would be at the lower end of market expectations. Costs fell more slowly than expected, resulting in net savings from improving efficiency landing £10m-15m lower that planned. Losses from the acquisition of Tesco’s blinkbox were another factor hitting profits.

Computacenter saw its share price boosted by the decision to offload its IT asset dispsoal arm RDC to distributor Arrow for £56m after judging it to be non-core. Flush with cash from the sale, Computacenter also announced it is returning £100m to its shareholders.

Croda International was also among the fallers following a downgrade from analysts at Berenberg from ‘hold’ to ‘buy’.

Risers
Afren (AFR) 12.96p +29.60%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 438.90p +10.86%
Hunting (HTG) 460.90p +10.16%
Premier Oil (PMO) 169.40p +7.97%
Computacenter (CCC) 679.50p +7.77%
Soco International (SIA) 297.60p +7.01%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,426.00p +6.50%
Serco Group (SRP) 171.50p +6.39%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 217.70p +6.25%
IMI (IMI) 1,367.00p +5.89%

Fallers
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 273.20p -2.25%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 2,453.00p -2.04%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 151.40p -2.01%
NMC Health (NMC) 498.80p -1.81%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 636.50p -1.77%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 66.55p -1.48%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,650.00p -1.30%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 409.60p -1.13%
Allied Minds (ALM) 430.40p -1.06%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 315.10p -1.01%