FTSE 250 movers: Ferrexpo climbs, Metro Bank steams lower

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.7% at almost 18,828 in afternoon trade on Wednesday, with Ferrexpo leading the way on the back of buoyant iron ore prices.

The miner and iron pellet manufacturer benefited as ore prices rallied on an announcement from world's largest iron miner, Vale, which confirmed a temporary 10% production cut due to the decommissioning of some dams following a mining disaster in Brazil last week.

Takeaway group Domino’s Pizza climbed recovered strongly after having dropped the prior session following its assertion that full-year underlying pre-tax profit was expected to be at the lower end of the consensus range of £93.9m to £98.2m.

Engineering specialist Senior rose as it was initiated at 'outperform' by MainFirst, while Premier Oil jumped as concern over oil supplies in the wake of US sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company sent prices upwards.

Metro Bank was the top faller after Goldman Sachs slashed its target price from 2,800p to 1,700p, stating that falling industry profitability driven by new regulations had reduced UK banks’ profitability, and with it Metro’s organic capital generation capacity.

TP ICAP inched lower after engaging in a row with Moody's Investor Services after the credit rating agency cut the stock from "Ba1" to "Ba2", with TP claiming that the cut was unsolicited and stating that it had not co-operated with ratings analysts.

Industry service provider UDG Healthcare dropped after rising on a Tuesday update which said that its first-quarter pretax profit was "well ahead" year on year, driven by acquisitions and growth across its businesses.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,822.87 0.64%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Ferrexpo (FXPO) 240.00p 9.74%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 191.60p 6.15%
Ted Baker (TED) 1,926.00p 6.00%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 264.10p 5.60%
Senior (SNR) 230.60p 5.30%
Premier Oil (PMO) 72.85p 3.77%
Victrex plc (VCT) 2,420.00p 3.60%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 736.00p 3.30%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 640.00p 3.23%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 320.00p 3.03%