FTSE 250 movers: Pennon rallies on upbeat results

London’s FTSE 250 index was up 0.1% at 1530 GMT in fairly quiet trading.

Water company Pennon was the star performer after it posted a rise in first half profit and earnings despite a small drop in revenue, as all businesses across the group performed well. For the half year to the end of September, pre-tax profit rose 6.8% from the first half of last year to £106.8m, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation grew 15.9% to £231.7m.

Pennon lifted its interim dividend by 4.8% to 10.46p. It said results for the year are likely to be weighted towards the first half and are on track to meet management expectations.

Zoopla rose after it was upgraded by Exane and Investec on bullishness about the company's ability to maintain its position in the market for property websites.

Exane moved to a 'neutral' rating from 'underperform', with a target price of 220p, while Investec raised its recommendation to 'hold' from the previous 'sell' and set a 231p price target.

Exane admitted its consistently cautious position on Zoopla had reflected a view that its operations and pricing would suffer a "significant, lasting" effect from the launch of the new rival OnTheMarket website from estate agency collective Agents Mutual, together with the "must have" status of Rightmove.

But following around 30% cuts to 2016 profit forecasts since its IPO, Exane analyst William Packer now sees the consensus estimate for core portal earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) as achievable.

Investec's Steve Liechti likewise said that while he remained concerned on the widening gap in Zoopla’s portal proposition strength versus Rightmove, as well as the persistent drag from OnTheMarket and reliance on uSwitch's ‘mono vertical’, he believes these are "now more factored into the share price" since the shares fell around 10% in the last month.

Petra Diamonds was also on the front foot after saying it has recovered a 23.16 carat pink diamond of “exceptional colour and clarity” from the Williamson mine in Tanzania. The diamond mining group said the stone is an example of the high-quality pink diamonds for which Williamson is known and is “the most significant recovery by Petra from the mine to date”.

RBC Capital Markets said: “While we caution against attributing value to fancy colours, we would estimate a price of +$100,000 a carat based on the sale in Q3 calendar 2014 of a 16.4 carat stone for $2.2m ($134,000/ct).”

Risers

Pennon Group (PNN) 874.00p 4.42%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 229.40p 4.42%
SVG Capital (SVI) 479.00p 4.11%
Supergroup (SGP) 1,629.00p 4.09%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 377.30p 3.94%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 364.80p 3.58%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 376.00p 3.18%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 117.30p 3.17%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 59.10p 2.87%
Debenhams (DEB) 83.10p 2.85%

Fallers

Acacia Mining (ACA) 171.00p -3.28%
Polymetal International (POLY) 538.00p -2.89%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 135.00p -2.53%
Genesis Emerging Markets Fund Ltd Ptg NPV (GSS) 461.00p -2.12%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 244.70p -2.12%
Hunting (HTG) 333.50p -1.91%
Ted Baker (TED) 3,216.00p -1.86%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 200.70p -1.86%
Aggreko (AGK) 1,008.00p -1.85%
Drax Group (DRX) 232.40p -1.82%