FTSE 250 movers: Oil services stocks bounce, Kaz knocked off high

The FTSE 250 index was on the up again on Tuesday, rising almost 0.5% to over 17,550 by mid-afternoon as oil-related stocks inflated on hopes of more oil price gains.

Oil Equipment, Services & Distribution

4,928.34

16:30 25/09/24

0.00%

0.00

Wood Group (John)

49.84p

15:39 15/11/24

-1.70%

-0.86p

Oil service companies Petrofac and Wood Group were among the top risers, with engineer Amec Foster Wheeler and oil and gas producer Tullow Oil also lifted.

Crude prices were on the up, bouncing back from three sessions of losses amid hopes that Opec will agree a production cut at its meeting later this month. West Texas Intermediate was up 3.5% to $44.83 a barrel and Brent crude was up 3.3% to $45.9.

Topping all this group was plastic piping systems manufacturer Polypipe on the back of a 10-month trading update that showed continuing strong UK like-for-like revenue growth at 8%.

The company said the EU referendum did not have an adverse affect on sales and orders, while management anticipate the business will meet full-year expectations and some analysts increased their earnings forecasts for this year and next.

Shares in Intermediate Capital Group were high risers, climbing to their highest level since the Brexit vote thanks to profits driven higher by a strong period of capital gains and news of a progressive dividend policy.

The asset manager said fund management profits were up 17% to £34m, with third party fee income up 26%, with adjusted group PBT of £133m more than two thirds ahead of some forecasts as capital gains were driven by £48m from realisations and around £78m due to a combination of improved underlying business performance and higher market multiples.

Meggitt also flew higher as the aerospace, defence and energy component and subsystem company said trading since the half year had been in line with expectations.

The FTSE 250 firm said third quarter revenue growth of 6% on an organic basis - excluding effects of mergers and acquisitions, and foreign exchange - was consistent with the previously announced expectation of a greater second half weighting of organic revenue and earnings than in 2015.

At the bottom of the table was copper miner Kaz Minerals as investors took some profits after the surge in the red metal last week that had lifted Kaz to a three-year high, with some of the froth knocked off the shares by a 'reduce' rating from HSBC on Tuesday in a note that said Kaz was overly leveraged.

After ramping up its major projects fairly smoothly and with net cash costs guided to average circa $1/lb for both projects at full production, Kaz is expected to be strongly cash generative, analysts said.

"However, net debt levels are uncomfortable, in our view. Kaz expects net debt to be circa $3bn by end Dec ’16, which should mark peak debt levels. Debt repayments have started, and hence we think KAZ may need to restructure the maturity profile of existing debt to avoid potential liquidity issues that we see materialising in mid-2018," they added. This has created a "valuation conundrum" and Kaz's assets are only just offsetting the high net debt position, meaning its valuation is "highly sensitive to the smallest of changes".

Fellow madcap miner Vedanta Resources was also hit by a downgrade, this time from Credit Suisse, which cut its stance on the stock to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’ on valuation grounds and fading earnings momentum.

CS upped its price target on the stock to 670p from 600p but downgraded the stock as the valuation is now at a large premium to both its main India-listed subsidiary and its major European peers following a rally of about 200% this year. “Earnings upgrade risk is muted compared to the broader sector due to the recent correction in oil prices and lower exposure to bulks (iron ore and coal) and we think the group's reduced financial risk, following the recently approved merger between Cairn India and Vedanta Limited, is now priced in," analysts said, also pointing out the significant amount of maturing debt over the next three years.

TalkTalk was down as revenue and earnings that beat forecasts were offset by the near-term financial impact of new wireline offers. As a 17-year old boy admitted in court to seven hacking offences linked to the TalkTalk data breach in October last year, chief executive Dido Harding said full year EBITDA would be at the "lower end" of the previous guidance range of £320-360m. She also guided that a return to group revenue growth would come in the year to March 2018 rather than 2017 as said previously.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Polypipe Group (PLP) 280.60p 7.92%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 448.10p 6.69%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 671.50p 6.00%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 252.90p 5.73%
Laird (LRD) 138.90p 4.44%
Marshalls (MSLH) 291.30p 4.26%
Meggitt (MGGT) 461.30p 3.62%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 791.00p 3.53%
Wood Group (John) (WG.) 795.50p 3.38%
Zoopla Property Group (ZPLA) 304.40p 3.01%