FTSE 250 movers: Airtel Africa lifted by upgrade; Carnival cruises lower
London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.1% at 22,189.66 in afternoon trade on Thursday.
Telecoms company Airtel Africa was boosted by an upgrade to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’ at JPMorgan.
Carnival was on the back foot, having rallied on Wednesday after a first-quarter update in which it reported a wider loss but said volumes for all future cruises were around 90% higher than in the final quarter of last year, thanks in part to pent-up demand.
The losses also came as broker Peel Hunt reiterated its ‘buy’ recommendation on shares of the cruise operator and upped its price target to 2,100p from 1,850p following the update, which it said was "more positive than expected" regarding forward bookings and pricing.
"Additional evidence of pent-up demand increases our confidence in a bounce-back in trading next year, with potential for an upside surprise from higher pricing," it said.
Direct Line and Moneysupermarket were both weaker as their stock went ex-dividend.
Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) 1,514.00p 3.84%
Indivior (INDV) 138.40p 3.67%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 85.75p 3.44%
Future (FUTR) 2,094.00p 3.36%
Hilton Food Group (HFG) 1,188.00p 3.30%
Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 441.20p 3.23%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 249.80p 3.22%
Chemring Group (CHG) 275.50p 2.80%
Pagegroup (PAGE) 499.00p 2.76%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,900.00p 2.65%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Carnival (CCL) 1,714.60p -4.69%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 307.70p -4.53%
Wizz Air Holdings (WIZZ) 4,908.00p -4.18%
Elementis (ELM) 120.40p -3.68%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 165.40p -3.50%
easyJet (EZJ) 986.60p -3.32%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,839.50p -3.31%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 270.80p -3.29%
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 862.60p -2.95%
Meggitt (MGGT) 480.50p -2.83%