FTSE 250 movers: Shawbrook shines but Esure slumps on Gocompare demerger

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.9% to 17,626.08 in afternoon trade.

Shawbrook was the standout gainer after the challenger bank said organic originations were up 23% in the third quarter year-to-date to £1.5bn.

Satellite services provider Inmarsat was in the black after it reported a jump in third-quarter revenues following strong performances in the government and aviation divisions, but a drop in pre-tax profit.

In the three months to the end of September, total revenues were up 5.8% to $341.9m, with government revenue up 9.8% to $84.8m and revenue in the aviation unit up 10.1% to $35.9m. Ligado Networks revenues surged 98.3% to $35.5m.

Lancashire Holdings also racked up healthy gains after proposing a special dividend and reporting profit after tax of $43m for the third quarter, which was ahead of consensus expectations of $34m.

Just Eat was in the black after Credit Suisse said the company’s third-quarter update on Wednesday was “encouraging”.

CS said the stock is a “top quality structural growth story”.

“We believe Just Eat holds strong competitive positions in online takeaway markets, an industry that we see as structurally attractive with ordering increasingly moving online. We also believe that competition risk from delivery-only logistics firms is overdone.”

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs upped its price target on Just Eat to 760p from 690p as it updated estimates following the Q3 numbers.

On the downside, Esure shares tumbled following the completion of the demerger of price comparison website Gocompare.com.

RBC Capital Markets downgraded its stance on the stock on Thursday to ‘underperform’ from ‘outperform’ and slashed the price target to 180p from 305p as it removed Gocompare earnings from its forecasts.

Kitchen supplier Howden Joinery was under the cosh after it noted a slowdown in revenue growth in the second half of the year.

Playtech and Laird were weaker as their stocks went ex-dividend.

Risers

Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 233.10p 10.32%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 798.50p 9.38%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 765.00p 7.90%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 310.50p 6.37%
AO World (AO.) 169.90p 5.99%
Just Eat (JE.) 589.50p 5.27%
Indivior (INDV) 368.10p 5.05%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 293.00p 4.91%
Workspace Group (WKP) 651.00p 4.49%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 262.20p 4.46%

Fallers

esure Group (ESUR) 198.50p -25.32%
Playtech (PTEC) 867.50p -5.81%
Howden Joinery Group (HWDN) 362.20p -5.16%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 522.50p -4.91%
Evraz (EVR) 195.20p -4.31%
NMC Health (NMC) 1,419.00p -3.67%
Scottish Mortgage Inv Trust (SMT) 321.50p -2.16%
Monks Inv Trust (MNKS) 521.00p -2.07%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 151.00p -1.95%
Laird (LRD) 138.50p -1.56%