FTSE 250 movers: Cranswick rallies on update; Hastings slumps on profit warning

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.8% at 21,883.43 in afternoon trade on Friday.

Food producer Cranswick rallied after saying it expects full-year adjusted pre-tax profit to be higher than current market forecasts.

On the downside, insurer Hastings slumped as it warned on profits and said it would cut its dividend following elevated claims costs in the fourth quarter.

In an update for the year to the end of December, the company also pointed to higher repair and third party credit hire costs, slightly higher winter frequencies than the prior year, and a small number of larger bodily injury losses.

Bodycote was under the cosh after RBC Capital Markets downgraded the stock to ‘sector perform’ from ‘outperform.

"Bodycote continues to show the relative resilience of its business supported by its Specialist Technologies. The Ellison acquisition (announced 24 December) should reinforce this. However, Bodycote also has had the best share price performance in our coverage in the last 3 months (+40% versus European Industrials +20%) and as such we see a reduced level of upside and reduce our rating to sector perform," it said.

FTSE 250 - Risers

Cranswick (CWK) 3,672.00p 8.13%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 7,005.00p 4.63%
Vivo Energy (VVO) 122.20p 4.27%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,618.00p 3.98%
Dunelm Group (DNLM) 1,173.00p 3.53%
SIG (SHI) 97.80p 3.49%
Finablr (FIN) 135.10p 3.13%
Pantheon International (PIN) 2,485.00p 3.11%
Fresnillo (FRES) 652.40p 3.03%
Paragon Banking Group (PAG) 499.80p 2.88%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

Restaurant Group (RTN) 139.00p -5.70%
Hastings Group Holdings (HSTG) 174.90p -5.56%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 461.00p -5.34%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 53.84p -2.82%
William Hill (WMH) 183.60p -2.26%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 192.90p -1.73%
Bank of Georgia Group (BGEO) 1,594.00p -1.60%
C&C Group (CCR) 378.50p -1.56%
Bodycote (BOY) 919.50p -1.50%
Galliford Try (GFRD) 143.90p -1.42%