FTSE 250 movers: Thomas Cook flying high as Metro Bank drops

London's FTSE 250 index was down 1.39% to 18,606.93 in afternoon trade on Wednesday, as embattled travel company Thomas Cook and serviced office provider IWG topped the charts.

The package holiday firm recovered strongly after successive drops in the wake of a difficult summer trading period.

IWG's shares were on the rise after Estorn, which is closely associated with IWG chief executive Mark Dixon, acquired 432,326 shares in the company from a series of transactions on Tuesday.

The buyer paid an average price of 215.7 pence each for a total of just over £0.9m.

Automotive fluid storage, carrying and delivery systems supplier TI Fluid Systems bounced back after hitting a 52-week low the previous afternoon.

Metro Bank was in the red after it posted a jump in third-quarter profit as it saw record lending growth, but margins at the challenger bank shrank.

The bank's net interest margin declined to 1.77% from 1.94% the year before, as Metro said recent competitive trends in the mortgage market have persisted despite the base rate increase in August, as it has continued to focus on high quality growth of low risk assets.

Broker Panmure Gordon said underlying PBT was a 16% miss on its estimates driven by both lower revenues due to lower loan growth and NIM than expectated. "Although Metro Bank is making progress towards management’s targets, the quarterly results progress is rather uneven," analysts said, adding that "the future returns potential is more than discounted in the current share price".

Cineworld dropped after it was downgraded to 'equalweight' at Barclays with a 305p target price as analysts highlighted concerns that the cinema chain will be inconvenienced by rising US interest rates.

"Trading is currently very strong in the US and there may be upside to Regal synergies of $100m. However, US interest rates are rising, all of Cineworld’s debt is at floating rates (circa 80% is US based), and leverage is relatively high (FY19 net debt/EBITDA is 3.2x," said the bank's analysts.

Though Cineworld is a consensual 'buy' among sell-side analysts, the note from Barclays said that consensus forecasts don't reflect the risk of rising rates.

Plus500 dropped back down after having racked up strong gains on Tuesday as it posted a drop in third-quarter revenue on the back of low volatility and new regulations but said trading for 2018 should be ahead of expectations.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,606.93 1.39%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 43.96p 9.63%
IWG (IWG) 225.00p 6.38%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 605.00p 5.58%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 197.60p 5.22%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 715.60p 4.99%
Capita (CPI) 123.75p 4.65%
Just Group (JUST) 75.60p 4.64%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,180.00p 4.43%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 2,226.00p 4.41%
Convatec Group (CTEC) 153.30p 4.36%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Metro Bank (MTRO) 2,420.00p -5.98%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 23.25p -1.96%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 415.00p -1.75%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,341.00p -1.40%
Sanne Group (SNN) 557.00p -1.24%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 440.20p -1.17%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 275.40p -1.15%
Mediclinic International (MDC) 354.80p -1.03%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 119.98p -0.84%
3i Infrastructure (3IN) 244.15p -0.75%