FTSE 250 movers: Petra Diamonds boosted by higher production guidance, Man Group stonger on upgrade

Petra Diamonds topped the risers after raising its production guidance from 3.2m to 3.3m carats for the 12 months to 30 June. “Our expansion programmes are on track at all operations, and production is expected to grow to about 3.3m carats in 2015 and to about 5m carats by financial year 2019,” said Johan Dippenaar, the group’s chief executive.

Drinks packaging group Rexam rose after agreeing a £5.4bn takeover by US rival Ball Corporation, a much larger higher valuation than had been expected by the market.

Man Group was boosted by an upgrade from analysts at Goldman Sachs to ‘conviction-buy’, as well as an increased price target of 210p, up from 185p.

Oil and energy stocks were weaker, with Premier Oil, Hunting, Soco International and Ophir Energy the four biggest fallers as crude prices dropped.

Insurer Catlin was also trading lower after going ex-dividend.

Risers
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 186.20p +6.34%
Rexam (REX) 563.50p +4.93%
Diploma (DPLM) 790.00p +4.29%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 477.50p +2.98%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 295.80p +2.89%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 206.10p +2.84%
Man Group (EMG) 184.60p +2.78%
Dignity (DTY) 1,942.00p +2.59%
Saga (SAGA) 189.20p +2.49%
ICAP (IAP) 514.00p +2.39%

Fallers
Premier Oil (PMO) 173.00p -6.03%
Hunting (HTG) 484.00p -5.47%
Soco International (SIA) 288.10p -4.57%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 139.90p -4.24%
Catlin Group Ltd. (CGL) 678.00p -3.90%
Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 2,160.00p -3.61%
Evraz (EVR) 188.00p -3.24%
Drax Group (DRX) 404.70p -3.04%
RPS Group (RPS) 231.00p -2.90%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 644.50p -2.79%