FTSE 250 movers: Acacia shines but Petrofac weighed by downgrade
London’s FTSE 250 index was down 0.4% to 16,944.12 in afternoon trading.
Acacia Mining was the standout gainer after it reported better first-quarter gold production than forecast and a 24% rise in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to $66m that almost hit targets thanks to an increase in revenue and lower cash costs.
Senior was also a high riser as its latest trading statement revealed a good performance in Aerospace in the first three months of the year, although flexonics faltered.
The firm said activity in the aerospace division increased as anticipated, resulting from additional content on new aircraft including the first five deliveries of the A320neo and ramping up of the A350 by Airbus. Boeing also completed the first flight of the 737 MAX in January.
Smiths Group advanced as investors welcomed the company’s agreement to acquire California-based Morpho Detection for an enterprise value of $730m (£493m).
Pendragon, Hansteen and Petrofac were all in the red as their shares went ex-dividend.
Petrofac was also weighed by a downgrade to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ by Jefferies.
The bank had upgraded to ‘buy’ after the company’s full year 2015 results, which illustrated record levels of Onshore E&C, a business past the worst of the IES expansion and with reduced capex keeping a 4% dividend safe from a free cash flow point of view.
“However, our unchanged 855p target price (now passed) also allowed for the fact that growth beyond 2017 is hard to factor in at this time."
Risers
Acacia Mining (ACA) 337.90p 5.76%
Senior (SNR) 232.40p 4.08%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 213.00p 3.95%
Rotork (ROR) 184.70p 3.76%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,148.00p 3.61%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 353.50p 3.60%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 289.20p 3.54%
BGEO Group (BGEO) 2,178.00p 3.12%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,234.00p 2.41%
Northgate (NTG) 400.80p 2.30%
Fallers
Ted Baker (TED) 2,262.00p -4.15%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 364.60p -3.72%
Pendragon (PDG) 34.00p -3.44%
Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 102.40p -3.40%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 216.30p -3.18%
Evraz (EVR) 143.00p -3.12%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 312.40p -3.10%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 295.60p -3.08%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 320.80p -2.99%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 888.00p -2.74%