FTSE 250 movers: OneSavings surges on results; AG Barr and Britvic lose their fizz

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.3% to 16,801.41 as investors digested the Bank of England’s decision to leave interest rates and the asset purchase programme unchanged at 0.5% and £375bn.

OneSavings Bank was the standout gainer after the challenger bank posted a 52% rise in underlying pre-tax profit for 2015 to £105.9m.

"I am delighted to report another year of very strong performance in 2015, delivering on all our financial objectives," said OneSavings Bank CEO Andy Golding.

"We have continued to grow the loan book through our specialist lending brands and improved both our net interest margin and cost to income ratio," he added.

Vectura was on the front foot for the second day running after saying it has received a letter of intent from a Skyepharma shareholder supporting the companies’ proposed merger.

Vectura said River and Mercantile Asset Management, which owns just under 4.8m Skyepharma shares or around 4.5%, has confirmed it will vote in favour of the merger.

On Wednesday, Vectura and Skyepharma said they had reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended merger.

Shipping services company Clarkson was higher after it said a number of former shareholders of RS Platou sold just over 2m shares in the company at 1,840p per share.

AG Barr and Britvic were under the cosh again after Chancellor George Osborne announced in Wednesday’s Budget that the government will tax soft drinks manufacturers who put large amounts of sugar in their drinks.

Numis downgraded its stance on Britvic to ‘add’ from ‘buy’ following the news.

“There will be extra costs as brands are reformulated and more newer products are accelerated. Some SKUs may still end up incurring the levy, in which case if it is passed on to the consumer (very probable) some brands/variants will see short term falls in consumption,” the brokerage said.

In addition, it said the odds are that the figures compiled by the Treasury for expected receipts from this levy will prove far too high.

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels and LondonMetric were in the red as they went ex-dividend.

Risers

OneSavings Bank (OSB) 293.00p 15.26%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,055.00p 8.27%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 96.90p 5.79%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 271.60p 5.35%
Rentokil Initial (RTO) 169.60p 3.73%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 1,421.00p 3.57%
Vectura Group (VEC) 157.30p 3.49%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,059.00p 3.42%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 309.00p 3.41%
Investec (INVP) 500.50p 3.07%

Fallers

Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 512.50p -5.18%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 402.20p -3.71%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 263.70p -3.44%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 304.60p -3.06%
Indivior (INDV) 161.60p -2.77%
Britvic (BVIC) 682.00p -2.50%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 199.40p -2.49%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 374.10p -2.48%
LondonMetric Property (LMP) 161.00p -2.25%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 548.50p -2.23%