FTSE 250 movers: Telecom Plus energised ahead of price cap

London's FTSE 250 was down 0.80% at 19,488.21 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.

Network marketing reseller for utilities Telecom Plus surged after an upgrade to 'buy' at Peel Hunt with a target price of 1,360p as the broker argued that an energy price cap to be introduced by industry regulator Ofgem will narrow the gap between new and established providers.

After several years of muted growth, Peel Hunt said that the environment precipitated by a newly introduced price cap would allow the gas, electricity, landline, broadband and mobile services provider's business model to "thrive".

Oil and gas firms Energean Oil & Gas and Cairn Energy rose higher as Brent crude prices rose due to a fall in exports from Iran, OPEC's third largest exporter, with industry services supplier Hunting also climbing upward.

Baking chain Greggs racked up strong gains after it posted a rise in third-quarter like-for-like sales as new products proved popular with customers and the FTSE 250 baker backed its expectations for the full year. Total sales were up 7.3%, while LFL sales were 3.2% higher, though this still constituted a slowdown from 8.6% and 5% growth, respectively, the previous year.

Canaccord reiterated its 'hold' rating of the Geordie bakers with an unchanged target price of 1,070p, stating that Greggs had performed well despite hot weather and "tough prior year comparatives".

Power generation business Contour Global was the big faller in afternoon trade on Tuesday, dropping by over 7% to a new all-time low below 180p. Approaching the first anniversary of its arrival on the market next month, the shares have fallen more than 20%.

Lancashire Holdings continued to drop a day after reporting that it expects to report third-quarter net losses following hits to its marine portfolio and exposure to natural disasters including US hurricane Florence, and Asian typhoons.

JP Morgan reiterated a rating of 'neutral' for the Bermuda-based insurance company with a target price of 630p in its analysis of insurers following Lancashire's Q3 trading warning. "Given these are one-off events we would not expect any impact on FY19E/20E estimates. We will however need to revisit our special dividend assumption as we would usually expect total DPS for Lancashire to be close to its total EPS for the year," said a note from the investment bank.

Cranswick's shares were down after its house broker, Shore Capital, commented that it expected a slowdown in first half sales growth to 1.1% from 44% over the prior two years in what it called "a year of consolidation" for the UK food producer.

"We remain comfortable with our forecasts at this stage of the year, though suggest the current upgrade cycle that has been such a strong feature of the Cranswick investment case in recent years may be pausing for breath, indeed we see any risk to our forecasts being on the downside," analysts wrote.

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,488.21 -0.80%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,128.00p 8.46%
Energean Oil & Gas (ENOG) 605.00p 4.31%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,922.00p 4.23%
Greggs (GRG) 1,044.00p 3.78%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 156.95p 3.36%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 521.00p 2.96%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 231.40p 2.75%
Hunting (HTG) 766.50p 2.68%
RPC Group (RPC) 800.40p 2.67%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 214.00p 2.39%