FTSE 250 movers: Oil stocks buoyant, shipping and transport sinks
Oil producers and support services companies dominated the FTSE 250 leaderboard on Wednesday after US data lifted crude oil prices.
Tullow Oil and Premier Oil rose around 8% apiece, while engineers Petrofac, Hunting and Weir Group enjoyed good share price gains. Cairn Energy was up for a second day, helped by an upgrade to 'buy' at Bank of America Merrill Lynch a day earlier.
Shipping- and transport-related stocks James Fisher, Clarkson and Stobart were both lower with trader citing global trade tensions, which were also hitting the automotive sector, dragging down TI Fluid Systems.
Serviced office group IWG was down after it warned annual profits would be up to £20m lower than expected because of weak performance at its UK business and short-term losses from opening new sites. The FTSE 250 company, which is the subject of takeover attention from several private equity firms, said global activity trends were strong but its UK business was doing poorly.
Defence group Ultra Electronics slipped after saying it now expects full-year operating profit at constant currencies to be down between £4m and £6m as its US defence and aerospace business Herley took a hit from cost overruns on development contracts.
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 7,621.69 1.11%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 20,844.14 0.42%
techMARK (TASX) 3,502.29 0.85%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Tullow Oil (TLW) 249.90p 8.07%
Premier Oil (PMO) 125.00p 7.88%
Intermediate Capital Group (ICP) 1,140.00p 5.95%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 552.80p 4.86%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 658.20p 3.88%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,507.50p 3.70%
Hunting (HTG) 825.00p 3.64%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,988.50p 3.54%
Cairn Energy (CNE) 258.80p 3.27%
Coats Group (COA) 77.00p 2.67%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,716.00p -5.18%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,465.00p -4.27%
TI Fluid Systems (TIFS) 252.00p -3.08%
Equiniti Group (EQN) 235.00p -2.89%
esure Group (ESUR) 211.20p -2.85%
IWG (IWG) 315.10p -2.81%
Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 229.50p -2.72%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 189.35p -2.17%
Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 665.00p -2.13%
Sanne Group (SNN) 686.00p -2.01%