FTSE 250 movers: Hunting gushes higher on update; Esure hit by downgrade
London’s FTSE 250 index was down 0.1% to 20,121.58 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
Shares in energy services company Hunting gushed higher after it said it expects stronger full year revenues and a "modest" pre-tax profit thanks to continued strong levels of US onshore oil drilling.
The group has grown revenues each quarter growth through 2017 and, with no disruption from the hurricane season, has now pencilled in $700m for the full year, around $50m better than previously indicated.
Hunting was also boosted by a note from Canaccord Genuity, which lifted its target price on the stock after the update. The Canadian broker said it expected the "strong" levels of activity seen over the prior month to extend into October, adding that business was especially strong at the oilfield services group's Titan unit.
Going the other way, Esure was under the cosh as JPMorgan Cazenove downgraded the stock to ‘underweight’ from ‘neutral’ saying the insurer’s footprint expansion programme is likely to drive strong growth in policy numbers over the coming years, but this remains a stretch target that is somewhat dependent on a favourable pricing backdrop.
“Given that the home market remains challenging, and that the valuation versus peers already looks high (due in part to M&A speculation), we move to underweight.”
Subprime lender Provident Financial was on the back foot as Berenberg hiked its target price but stuck to a 'hold' recommendation on the shares, warning clients that it was impossible to anticipate the conclusion of the regulator's investigation into the door-step lender.
"We do not think it is possible to usefully forecast the conclusion of the FCA investigation, and it is this variable that will be the key driver of the stock price over the medium term, in our view. We therefore retain our hold recommendation.”
FTSE 250 - Risers
Hunting (HTG) 484.40p 6.07%
Redrow (RDW) 660.50p 2.96%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 207.60p 2.62%
Go-Ahead Group (GOG) 1,767.00p 2.38%
RPC Group (RPC) 957.50p 1.86%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 189.50p 1.83%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 234.10p 1.78%
Grainger (GRI) 273.40p 1.71%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 259.30p 1.65%
Coats Group (COA) 86.90p 1.64%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
esure Group (ESUR) 266.30p -2.99%
Provident Financial (PFG) 903.00p -2.80%
Softcat (SCT) 502.00p -2.71%
Evraz (EVR) 317.40p -2.64%
Greencore Group (GNC) 189.30p -2.57%
Workspace Group (WKP) 860.50p -2.55%
Sophos Group (SOPH) 589.00p -2.40%
Investec (INVP) 547.00p -1.97%
CLS Holdings (CLI) 212.80p -1.94%
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 88.30p -1.89%