FTSE 250 movers: Stocks up as pre-referendum volatility continues

The FTSE 250 was well into green territory in afternoon trading on Friday, in what analysts were calling another instance of volatility ahead of next week's EU referendum.

Shawbrook Group shares were finally being rewarded, after receiving a positive note from Goldman Sachs earlier in the week.

The banking firm had seen choppy trading in recent days, despite being the subject of a reiterated ‘buy’ rating on Wednesday.

At the time, Goldman Sachs analysts put a target price of 390p on the stock, indicating a potential upside of 67.17%, though the stock has risen and fallen violently since then.

Clarkson stock was recovering after falling 3.67% in high-volume trading on Thursday.

The company has declined 3.45% overall since last November.

Restaurant Group was still on the receiving end of rewards from investors, two days after hauling in Monarch’s Barry Nightingale as its turnaround boss.

The Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito owner’s shares had almost halved in value this year before the appointment, with the firm issuing its first profit warning in over ten years in April.

On the downside, N Brown was under pressure, falling just a day after its shares jumped 8% after it reported a fall in revenue that was much smaller than expected.

The clothing retailer had forewarned the market of a dip in revenue, citing poor weather and Brexit fears as keeping consumers at bay, though its revenue dip only ended up being 1.6%.

“Brown’s first quarter trading deserves a strong share price reaction, in our view,” said analysts at Jefferies on Thursday.

“This was a challenging trading period, but we think product revenues rebounded into positive growth over the last 6 weeks.”

Investors were still fleeing Aveva, after it emerged on Thursday that a potential merger between it and Schneider Electric’s software division had collapsed for a second time.

Just days earlier, the two companies revealed they had revived talks, adding a bitter taste to Thursday’s failure.

“Following the termination of the preliminary discussions between Aveva Group and Schneider Electric SE, Aveva has applied to the UKLA for the suspension of its shares to be lifted,” read Aveva’s short statement to the market on Thursday morning.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,021.97 1.20%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 16,378.55 2.16%
techMARK (TASX) 2,973.54 0.93%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Standard Chartered (STAN) 527.20p 5.70%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 64.28p 4.76%
Barclays (BARC) 166.00p 4.73%
Anglo American (AAL) 640.10p 4.52%
TUI AG Reg Shs (DI) (TUI) 1,003.00p 4.42%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 222.60p 3.92%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 175.00p 3.86%
Old Mutual (OML) 176.10p 3.65%
Standard Life (SL.) 308.80p 3.55%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,442.00p 3.37%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 6,645.00p -4.04%
Unilever (ULVR) 3,073.00p -1.06%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,222.00p -0.89%
National Grid (NG.) 956.00p -0.61%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,126.50p -0.46%
Diageo (DGE) 1,775.50p -0.45%
WPP (WPP) 1,499.00p -0.27%
Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) 8,655.00p -0.23%
SABMiller (SAB) 4,265.50p -0.19%
Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 6,636.00p -0.18%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 243.20p 10.05%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,250.00p 9.92%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 338.00p 7.75%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 188.40p 7.66%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 268.90p 7.43%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 412.40p 7.37%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,720.00p 7.17%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 309.00p 6.55%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 323.20p 6.32%
Riverstone Energy Limited (RSE) 868.50p 6.30%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Centamin (DI) (CEY) 111.90p -3.20%
Evraz (EVR) 112.90p -2.84%
Allied Minds (ALM) 337.00p -2.60%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 339.40p -1.71%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 222.00p -1.68%
Softcat (SCT) 339.80p -0.99%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,606.00p -0.86%
The Renewables Infrastructure Group Limited (TRIG) 96.60p -0.62%
Croda International (CRDA) 2,837.00p -0.28%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 305.30p -0.23%