FTSE 250 movers: Underdone Restaurant Group drives market down

The FTSE 250 fell sharply on Thursday, down 259.61 points (1.55%) to 16,436.16 by mid-afternoon.

Restaurant Group’s year-end trading update came out undercooked after it revealed sales slowed in the final weeks of the year, with the market expecting a boost from the favourable cinema releases over the festive period.

The group, which runs the Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito, Coast to Coast and Garfunkel's chains, also warned of a tougher trading environment for consumer facing businesses. Ahead of final results in early March, revealed revenue in the 52 weeks to 27 December was up 7.9% on the prior year, and like-for-like sales rose 1.5%. This implied negative trading in the last seven weeks of the year, as previous trading updates had shown a 2% increase over the first 45 weeks.

Thomas Cook Group also featured on the fallers list after a series of bomb blasts rocked Jakarta. A Canadian and an Indonesian were killed and a number of people wounded by the explosions, which happened at a number of locations including a shopping centre near the presidential palace and UN offices. Islamic State has since claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Meanwhile B&M European Value Retail surged as the group revealed strong sales in the UK boosted total revenues for the 13 weeks to 26 December.

Total group revenue was up 23.5% for the quarter on a constant currency basis from £527.9m in 2014 to £647.8m. That was boosted by a 24.4% increase in revenue from B&M stores, up from £493.8m to £614.5m due to the group’s successful store opening programme as well as strong Christmas trading. Jawoll also saw an increase in its quarterly revenues of 7.8%, however it was hit by currency conversions, resulting in 2.1% drop to £33.3m. Chief executive Simon Arora said it demonstrates the popularity of the group’s model, despite a challenging trading period for the industry in the UK.

JD Sports also had a good day after a bumper Christmas saw sales at the sports and fashion retailer sprint ahead by 10.6%.

The company said it now expected full year headline profit before tax and exceptional items to beat expectations of £136m by up to 10%. It also revealed the termination of a project to replace its IT systems would lead to a one-off charge of £12m. “With a stronger IT team now in place, and significant developments having been introduced to our current systems, we have concluded that we can manage further growth and change with more agility and lower cost using our internally developed systems and thereby minimising the change risk to the business,” the company said.

FTSE 250 - Risers
B&M European Value Retail S.A. (DI) (BME) 274.90p +7.09%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 1,114.00p +5.29%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 233.00p +4.30%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,057.00p +4.14%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 571.50p +2.79%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 132.50p +2.79%
William Hill (WMH) 379.50p +2.73%
Ibstock (IBST) 218.20p +2.20%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 702.00p +1.67%
Home Retail Group (HOME) 151.20p +1.20%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Restaurant Group (RTN) 528.50p -17.16%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 108.30p -9.37%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 1,740.00p -7.35%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 190.50p -6.30%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,615.00p -5.61%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 349.60p -5.46%
Just Eat (JE.) 448.20p -5.26%
Smith (DS) (SMDS) 365.20p -5.24%
Betfair Group (BET) 3,669.00p -5.22%
Rightmove (RMV) 3,975.00p -4.74%