FTSE 250 movers: Softcat surges on update; Royal Mail gets an upgrade

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.5% at 20,633.81 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Softcat surged to the top of the index after saying that trading has remained positive since its first-quarter statement in mid-November and the company is ahead of where it expected to be. In an update ahead of its interim results, the provider of IT infrastructure technology and services said demand from its public sector customers has remained strong.

Iron ore pellet producer Ferrexpo gained after it announced a special interim dividend of 13.2 US cents. This reflects "the strong operational and financial performance of the group in 2020, and strong balance sheet," it said.

Royal Mail was up after Berenberg lifted its rating on the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘sell’ and hiked the price target to 280p from 137p as it said risks remain but are now balanced.

The bank noted that despite a severe hit to mail volumes, Royal Mail has been relatively successful during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a surge in e-commerce benefiting both the UK division and its European business, GLS.

"With relations with the UK employee unions de-risked for the moment and online shopping likely to continue apace at least until the vaccine is more widely rolled out, we envisage limited further downside risks in the near term," it said.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Softcat (SCT) 1,523.00p 8.79%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 312.00p 5.33%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 143.55p 5.28%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 64.70p 5.17%
888 Holdings (888) 309.00p 4.57%
Provident Financial (PFG) 316.40p 4.56%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 330.50p 4.29%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 1,883.00p 4.26%
National Express Group (NEX) 237.00p 3.95%
Royal Mail (RMG) 354.80p 3.89%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

BMO Commercial Property Trust Limited (BCPT) 78.40p -3.69%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 554.00p -3.65%
Ascential (ASCL) 377.40p -3.43%
ICG Enterprise Trust (ICGT) 908.00p -3.40%
Capita (CPI) 37.50p -3.13%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,392.00p -2.61%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,992.00p -2.35%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 524.50p -2.33%
Caledonia Investments (CLDN) 2,825.00p -2.25%
Edinburgh Worldwide Inv Trust (EWI) 356.50p -2.19%