FTSE 250 movers: Sophos, Thomas Cook and Auto Trader lead gains

Oxford-based Sophos, which is holding its annual general meeting next week, hit a six-month high on the day that FTSE 100 listed Micro Focus announced its transformational $8.8bn merger with Hewlett-Packard Enterprises' software arm, raising eyebrows and investors hopes for more M&A activity.

Perhaps more pertinently, Intel announced a deal overnight to sell a majority stake in cyber security specialist McAfee, a direct peer of Sophos, for $4.2bn to investor group TPG.

Thomas Cook was flying higher as it launched its joint venture with Chinese conglomerate Fosun in Shanghai called Thomas Cook China, which will offer 90 high-end holiday packages to more than 40 international and domestic destinations.

News of the JV with 8.2% investor Fosun, which will target "affluent, adventurous, quality-oriented” customers to help the pair grab a high-margin share of China's booming holiday market, helped lift the UK tour operator's shares to a three-month high.

Engineer Rotork got a boost from a RBC Capital Markets note that upgraded the broker's stance on the stock to ‘sector perform’ from ‘underperform’ and lifted the price target to 200p from 165p.

RBC said that following recent underperformance and a sector re-rating, the shares no longer look as expensive relative to peers.

Similarly, Auto Trader accelerated to its highest level since the Brexit vote after management gave a confident overview of the group’s prospects on an investor roadshow.

A note from Exane BNP Paribas revealed that the company has experienced no material Brexit impact thus far, with healthy website traffic growth, display ad trends solid and August industry data suggesting continued new car transaction growth. Exane said that, with risks of a ‘leave vote’ macro shock now reduced, it had increased its target price by 15% to 450p.

Interdealer broker Icap was on the up after it received clearance from the UK competition regulator to sell on its London-based oil broking business, meaning its larger voice broking sale to Tullett Prebon can proceed to the next hurdle.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday said it accepted the undertakings proposed by Icap to divest its London-based EMEA oil desks to INTL FCStone, and so would not carry out an in-depth 'Phase 2' investigation.

On the downside, Phoenix Group led the fallers as its share went ex-dividend.

Online grocery specialist Ocado was down on reports Amazon had expanded its Fresh grocery delivery service to 190 Greater London postcodes.

CMC Markets continued its fall from Wednesday's warning interim profits would be lower than last year due to what it said was a lower value of client trades on depressed levels of market volatility.

Broker Numis said in a note published on Thursday that it was cutting its earnings estimates, pointing out that it was only six weeks ago CMC had stated trading volumes were up following the Brexit vote and improvements in underlying client metrics were “very positive”.

"This is why we found this morning’s profit warning a little surprising, especially given the recent positive announcements from other trading firms," analysts wrote, adding that as a result, adjusted EPS estimates for 2017, 2018 and 2019 were trimmed by 13%, 13% and 12% respectively and the target price cut to 260p from 280p.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,847.95 0.02%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 18,100.03 0.22%
techMARK (TASX) 3,493.19 0.58%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Sophos Group (SOPH) 263.40p 5.49%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 75.30p 5.09%
Rotork (ROR) 217.80p 4.51%
Auto Trader Group (AUTO) 402.20p 3.31%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 278.80p 3.18%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 400.00p 3.12%
ICAP (IAP) 488.40p 3.10%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 282.90p 3.06%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 308.90p 2.97%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 843.00p -3.44%
NMC Health (NMC) 1,367.00p -3.05%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 316.80p -2.52%
Countrywide (CWD) 259.10p -2.30%
SIG (SHI) 123.60p -2.29%
Elementis (ELM) 210.80p -2.23%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 213.20p -2.16%
CMC Markets (CMCX) 238.00p -2.06%
IP Group (IPO) 185.70p -2.06%
NCC Group (NCC) 325.10p -2.02%