FTSE 250 movers: PureTech drops, Royal Mail rises

London's FTSE 250 was down 0.07% at 19,193.47 in afternoon trade on Thursday, with PureTech Health leading the index lower.

John Laing was also under the cosh as it posted a slump in half-year pre-tax profit and reported £66m of writedowns on renewable energy assets in Australia due to industry transmission problems and £55.0m of writedowns on its European wind assets.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Alexander Wheeler said: "The writedown of the renewable assets is unhelpful, however we note that JLG is showing a conservative approach to these assets, with the issue in Australia industry wide. Furthermore, the decision to suspend further investment in these areas is sensible given strong opportunity in PPP assets in other geographies."

Tritax Big Box Reit stumbled after analysts at Barclays cut their rating of the stock from 'equal weight' to 'underweight', while Ferrexpo dropped as analysts at Liberum switched the stock from a 'buy' to 'sell' rating.

Ted Baker also dropped after its finance boss, Charles Anderson, ended his 17-year stint at the fashion retailer to join luxury handbag maker Mulberry, while Computacenter edged lower ahead of the release of its interim results tomorrow.

While Royal Mail led the risers at the other end of the index, Premier Oil followed close behind as it launched a formal process to sell its stake in an undeveloped project off the coast of Mexico and posted a 24% increase in first-half profit.

Analysts from Berenberg said: "Using the implied valuation from Sierra Oil & Gas’ sale of its 40% stake in the project in December 2018, a sale could yield $300m net to Premier Oil. We note, however, that the partners have completed a successful appraisal programme and increased the resource size estimate since then. We see Zama as an attractive asset that is competitively positioned on the global cost curve, and are confident that a potential deal could be closed before end-2019."

Finally, Rank Group made gains despite a drop in annual profit as the gambling company boosted its dividend and said the start to its new financial year had been "encouraging".

Market Movers

FTSE 250 (MCX) 19,193.47 -0.07%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Royal Mail (RMG) 203.90p 6.70%
Premier Oil (PMO) 76.81p 6.29%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,530.00p 5.86%
Hammerson (HMSO) 219.30p 4.93%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 170.80p 4.91%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 618.40p 4.78%
Elementis (ELM) 149.60p 4.32%
Rank Group (RNK) 157.60p 3.55%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 486.49p 3.44%
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 43.40p 3.33%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

PureTech Health (PRTC) 265.00p -6.69%
John Laing Group (JLG) 358.60p -5.83%
Tritax Big Box Reit (BBOX) 137.35p -5.28%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 205.80p -4.63%
Intu Properties (INTU) 32.47p -4.13%
Ted Baker (TED) 923.97p -3.75%
Assura (AGR) 67.88p -2.89%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 727.00p -2.34%
JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust (JII) 701.45p -2.31%
Computacenter (CCC) 1,404.93p -2.30%