FTSE 250 movers: Ferrexpo gains on results; Berendsen hit by downgrade
London's FTSE 250 was down 0.9% to 18,823.54 in afternoon trade.
Ferrexpo was the standout gainer, reversing early losses after saying it will start paying dividends again and posting a 20% jump in its 2016 earnings.
IT infrastructure provider Softcat gained ground as it said interim pre-tax profits rose to £20.9m from £15.4m on the back of a 28.9% jump in revenues to £378.5m thanks to double-digit growth in software, hardware and services.
Acacia Mining reversed earlier losses to trade higher, after it said late on Tuesday that it has ended preliminary discussions with Canada's Endeavour Mining, as announced in January, and has decided not to progress towards a merger of the two businesses.
Housebuilder Redrow rallied after it said its trading performance continues to be robust and it expects pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June 2017 to rise 22% from the prior year.
The company said it is on track to deliver at least £306m in pre-tax profit, thanks to a record order book and a further increase in legal completions, as well as better-than-expected rises in average selling prices.
On the downside, Clarkson was under pressure after a number of former shareholders of RS Platou agreed to sell an aggregate of 1.23m shares in the company at 2,750p each.
Commercial laundry group Berendsen retreated after Credit Suisse downgraded its stance on the stock to 'underperform' from 'outperform' and slashed the price target to 700p from 1,200p.
CS said a lack of investment into the business over a number of years means it now requires a meaningful injection of capital over the next few years alongside a re-vamping of operational and IT processes.
Risers
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 173.20p 6.26%
Softcat (SCT) 362.70p 4.37%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 286.00p 4.00%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,040.00p 3.07%
Hunting (HTG) 550.00p 1.76%
HICL Infrastructure Company Ltd (HICL) 165.00p 1.73%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 268.90p 1.63%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 482.60p 1.13%
Redrow (RDW) 498.80p 1.11%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 273.60p 0.96%
Fallers
Clarkson (CKN) 2,816.00p -4.57%
Berendsen (BRSN) 781.50p -3.82%
Spectris (SXS) 2,414.00p -3.67%
Aggreko (AGK) 881.50p -3.56%
Sanne Group (SNN) 632.00p -3.51%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 817.00p -3.43%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 1,616.00p -3.23%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 302.30p -3.11%
Keller Group (KLR) 885.00p -3.01%
RPC Group (RPC) 885.00p -2.85%