FTSE 250 movers: Opec outperformers offset housing and outsourcing slips

Oil-related stocks led the FTSE 250 higher on Thursday after Opec's surprise overnight deal, though an initial spike tailed off towards the close.

Producer Tullow Oil, which is seen as quite crude-price sensitive, led the leaderboard, while oil investor Riverstone Energy was not far behind, after the oil producing cartel pledged to control oil output, even though the overnight spike in oil dropped off from yesterday peak.

Oil engineers Amec Foster Wheeler and Hunting were among those also lifted, even though as the day went on crude prices retreated as scepticism crept in about the deal and investors booked profits.

Allied Minds, the university intellectual property company, played its way to second place on the leaderboard as it announced a partnership with General Electric’s venture capital subsidiary to commercialise next generation technologies.

Boston-based Allied Minds and GE Ventures agreed to invest in new and existing technologies from each of their innovation pipelines, with Allied receiving the right of first refusal to license technologies chosen by GE, and GE able to invest in selected products from the FTSE 250 group's network of over 160 university and federal research partners.

GE will also be able to take part in any future fundraising by Allied Minds for at least 6% of the funds raised, subject to regulations.

In the red were a group of housing stocks and outsourcing companies.

House-builders Crest Nicholson, Bovis Homes, Bellway and Redrow all subsided as data from the Bank of England showed a 20-month low in mortgage approvals during August, with new curbs also announced on buy-to-let borrowing.

Mortgage approvals fell to 60,058 in August from 60,925 in July - not quite as much as the consensus forecast of 59,800 but down over 17% from the peak of over 73,000 in January.

Furthermore, the National House Building Council (NHBC) reported an 8% decline in the number of new homes registered to be built in the UK in the three months to August compared to the same period last year.

There were 36,869 new home registrations in the quarter to August 2016 down 10.6% on the 41,222 second quarter this year.

Also, outsourcing groups Serco and G4S were sent reeling by a big profit warning at Capita, which warned of a slowdown in some business areas and recent hesitancy over new contracts among some potential clients.

The FTSE 100 business process outsourcing group said revenues would grow 4-5% in the calendar year and that underlying profit before tax would be between £535m and £555m, 5-9% short of last year and 10-13% shy of current City forecasts.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Tullow Oil (TLW) 239.90p 9.74%
Allied Minds (ALM) 339.50p 8.61%
Hunting (HTG) 449.60p 6.95%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 222.50p 5.65%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,653.00p 5.22%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 1,131.00p 5.21%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 190.10p 5.14%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 880.50p 5.13%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 592.50p 4.87%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 568.00p 4.70%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 835.50p -3.52%
Redrow (RDW) 389.20p -3.45%
Essentra (ESNT) 491.40p -3.17%
Bellway (BWY) 2,283.00p -3.14%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 439.00p -3.09%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 2,502.00p -2.80%
G4S (GFS) 225.90p -2.59%
Debenhams (DEB) 55.65p -2.45%
Kier Group (KIE) 1,322.00p -2.44%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 863.00p -2.43%