FTSE 250 movers: Homeserve jumps on results; Restaurant Group hit by UBS note
London's FTSE 250 was up 0.2% to 19,961.16 in afternoon trade.
Home repair and improvements business Homeserve surged as it posted a jump in full-year pre-tax profit and hiked its dividend for the year by 20%. In the year to the end of March, statutory pre-tax profit rose 19% to £98.3m on revenue of £785m, up from £633.2m in 2016.
Irish convenience food group Greencore rallied after it reported a rise in first-half pre-tax profit as revenue grew thanks in part to its acquisition of US food company Peacock Foods. In the half year to the end of March, adjusted pre-tax profit for the first half rose to £44.7m from £36.5m on revenue of £1.01bn, up 46% from the same period a year ago.
Syncona was higher after saying its portfolio company Blue Earth Diagnostics had received confirmation of approval of its Axumin prostate cancer diagnostic agent by the European Commission.
UDG Healthcare gained ground as it lifted its full-year outlook and posted a 19% rise in pre-tax profit for the six months to the end of March.
Electrocomponents advanced after saying full-year profit before tax quadrupled to £127.1m as it profited from a currency tailwinds and made market share gains in Northern Europe and North America.
Going the other way, Restaurant Group was under pressure as UBS downgraded the stock to 'sell' from 'neutral' and cut the price target to 275p from 310p following a strong run in the shares recently and pointing to the turnaround plans for Frankie & Benny's. UBS said it has analysed the new F&B proposition following the recent menu launch, along with 20 key competitors, and found that although prices have fallen, there is a value gap versus the branded pub chains which are around 22% cheaper.
IP Group was on the back foot after Touchstone Innovations rejected an offer from the company, although the intellectual property-based business developer did say it has backing from the majority of its shareholders.
Hunting gushed lower as Goldman Sachs removed the stock from its Conviction List but kept it at 'buy'. It said the removal was driven by its US oil services team’s downward revision to US onshore drilling activity levels to which Hunting is geared.
"Whilst we still forecast revenue and profitability improvement, we now expect it to be more muted," GS said.
Risers
Homeserve (HSV) 785.50p 11.89%
Greencore Group (GNC) 246.30p 8.36%
Syncona Limited NPV (SYNC) 161.50p 5.56%
Allied Minds (ALM) 147.50p 4.39%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 793.50p 3.59%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 174.60p 3.01%
NMC Health (NMC) 2,160.00p 2.91%
Essentra (ESNT) 571.00p 2.70%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 551.50p 2.41%
RPC Group (RPC) 851.50p 2.04%
Fallers
Restaurant Group (RTN) 316.30p -6.03%
AO World (AO.) 145.90p -2.73%
Hunting (HTG) 558.00p -2.45%
ZPG Plc (ZPG) 361.20p -2.33%
Aveva Group (AVV) 1,997.00p -2.25%
IP Group (IPO) 139.90p -2.17%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 160.90p -2.13%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 315.60p -1.38%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 768.50p -1.28%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 548.50p -1.17%