FTSE 250 movers: Miners surge but Greencore gets shelved
London's FTSE 250 was up 0.20% at 20,500.09 in afternoon trade on Wednesday.
Miners were the standout gainers, with Kazakhstan-focused pit miner Kaz Minerals and Swiss-based commodity trading and mining company Ferrexpo reaping the rewards as copper prices rose.
Industrial software provider Aveva pushed higher after saying its full-year outlook remains in line with the board's expectations and that it aims to increase its adjusted EBIT margins to 30%.
In an update ahead of its capital markets day later, the company said it has continued to deliver constant currency revenue growth in the year to date and aims to grow medium-term revenue on a constant currency basis at least in line with the industrial software market, which is growing at a mid-single digit rate.
It also benefited from an upgrade to 'buy' from 'add' at Numis, who set a target price of 3,400p per share.
Babcock International rallied after the engineering services company said it is trading in line with its expectations, the order book and pipeline are strong and its outlook for the year is unchanged.
In an update for the period from 1 April, the company said its order book and pipeline have a combined unchanged value of £32bn, with around 87% of revenue now in place for 2018/19 and around 57% for 2019/20.
Peel Hunt reiterated its 'hold' rating and target price of 760p for the company's shares off the back of the results.
Serviced office company IWG, formerly Regus, recovered after dropping on Tuesday in the wake of Credit Suisse's decision to cut its rating on the stock to 'underperform' from 'neutral', chopping the price target to 200p from 245p.
The big faller in afternoon trade was Dublin-based food company Greencore Group, which dropped over 5%.
The drop comes after supermarket giant Tesco, for whom Greencore is one of the largest suppliers, unveiled their new budget supermarket brand Jack's in Cambridgeshire.
Approximately half of the planned budget stores will take over premises from Tesco Metro stores and will have an emphasis on British sourced produce and own brand products, potentially worrying Greencore investors that the relationship between the pair could consequently diminish in size.
Finally, fertiliser developer Sirius Minerals retreated after racking up strong gains over the last few days following news of its newly penned supply deal to sell up to 2.5m tonnes per year of POLY4 - its flagship fertiliser product - to Brazilian fertiliser distribution company Cibra.
Market Movers
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,500.09 0.20%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 511.00p 6.02%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,946.00p 4.54%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 171.40p 4.32%
IP Group (IPO) 130.40p 3.66%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 717.20p 3.64%
McCarthy & Stone (MCS) 129.60p 3.51%
IWG (IWG) 220.90p 3.42%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,710.50p 3.17%
Investec (INVP) 531.60p 3.02%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 168.05p 3.00%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Greencore Group (GNC) 180.50p -5.20%
Sanne Group (SNN) 633.00p -4.09%
Rank Group (RNK) 176.60p -3.81%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 2,399.72p -2.77%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 310.80p -2.57%
Sirius Minerals (SXX) 30.06p -2.34%
SIG (SHI) 122.50p -2.31%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 489.80p -2.16%
Big Yellow Group (BYG) 958.50p -1.94%
Indivior (INDV) 266.15p -1.79%