FTSE 250 movers: Intermediate Capital rallies, FirstGroup loses steam

London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.5% to 19,879.84 in afternoon trade on Tuesday following the release of the latest inflation figures.

Asset manager Intermediate Capital was the best performer after it reported a 14% jump in assets for the first half as it raised €5.7bn of new money.

In the six months to 30 September, assets under management rose to €27.2bn, with €5.7bn of new money raised, driven by the company’s Senior Debt Partners strategy raising €4.2bn in the six month period. Intermediate said the fundraising pipeline is strong, with a number of its larger strategies expected to begin raising successor funds in the next 12 months.

Computacenter rallied as the IT services group said its results for 2017 will be “comfortably in excess” of its previous expectations following a strong start to the fourth quarter.

Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone was on the front foot as it posted a drop in full-year profit but a jump in revenue that beat analysts’ expectations.

Wholesaler Booker was firmer after Tesco got provisional clearance from the UK competition authority following an in-depth review.

Plastic piping manufacturer Polypipe advanced as it reported strong organic growth across UK residential and mainland European markets in the ten months to 31 October, putting the firm on track towards management expectations for its full year.

UBM was also trading higher after saying trading since the half year has been “strong” with the group on track to deliver “significantly accelerated” adjusted underlying revenue growth in annual events for the full year.

On the downside, Britvic was under pressure as Shore Capital downgraded the stock to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ ahead of its preliminary results at the end of the month.

“The issue looking forward is we do not believe the market has built in any potential impact from the soft drinks levy into FY2018F expectations. With this creating potential downward pressure on earnings post a reasonably solid re-rating of the shares we downgrade to hold.”

FirstGroup was in the red after a mixed set of interim results.

Risers

Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,023.00p 10.06%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,064.00p 7.69%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 157.50p 7.00%
Booker Group (BOK) 211.30p 6.39%
Just Group (JUST) 152.70p 4.95%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 392.90p 4.16%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 589.50p 3.60%
UBM (UBM) 744.50p 3.55%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,586.00p 3.32%
RPC Group (RPC) 927.50p 3.23%

Fallers

Cranswick (CWK) 2,946.00p -5.06%
Britvic (BVIC) 730.00p -4.45%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 498.40p -3.41%
FirstGroup (FGP) 106.20p -3.37%
Dignity (DTY) 2,195.00p -2.57%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,127.00p -2.34%
Electrocomponents (ECM) 672.50p -2.11%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 281.30p -1.92%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 797.00p -1.85%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 245.20p -1.84%