FTSE 250 movers: Thomas Cook flies low, Genus holds fast amid selloff
London's FTSE 250 was down 2.66% at 17,785.79 in afternoon trade on Thursday, as Thomas Cook led the downward charge following news of its demotion from the index.
FTSE 250
19,824.16
16:59 26/04/24
FTSE 350
4,470.09
16:59 26/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,423.59
17:14 26/04/24
Harbour Energy
293.40p
16:40 26/04/24
Indivior
1,408.00p
16:35 26/04/24
Industrial Engineering
13,588.68
16:59 26/04/24
Oil & Gas Producers
9,649.01
16:59 26/04/24
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology
22,773.26
16:59 26/04/24
Thomas Cook Group
3.45p
16:45 20/09/19
Travel & Leisure
7,572.38
16:59 26/04/24
Weir Group
2,010.00p
16:40 26/04/24
Troubled tour operator Thomas Cook dropped after confirmation that it will drop out of the index following a sustained period of poor share performance and recent profit warning.
Opiod addiction treatment developer Indivior also dropped, extending its fall this calendar year to almost 80% after being plagued by investor concerns that a copycat drug will end the dominance of its Suboxone film treatment.
Premier Oil and oil and gas engineering firm Weir were under pressure as oil prices struggled, with Brent crude and WIT down 4% as Saudi Arabia's energy minister dashed hopes of any steep production cuts at the OPEC meeting in Vienna.
Specialist bank and asset manager Investec also crept downward as its stock went ex-dividend.
On what was a sparse day for risers, farming biotechnology supplier Genus topped the charts after it was upgraded to 'buy' from 'hold' and had its target price boosted from 2,475p to 2,630p by Kepler Cheuvreux, with analysts confident that the company would recover from an outbreak of African swine fever in China.
"In our view, Genus is well positioned to benefit as of 2020E as: 1) ASF is likely to cause a shortage in global pork supply; and 2) commercial farmers in China, the company’s core client base, will rapidly gain share," said a note from the broker.
Just after markets closed, Genus announced a placing to raise £68m with existing and new institutional investors to pare down debt "and to provide balance sheet flexibility to continue to capture growth opportunities". The placing will be priced at 2,200p per share, below the 2,386p closing price on Thursday.
Swiss-based commodity trading and mining company Ferrexpo was on the rise after it announced a special dividend after reporting that it had continued to trade as expected in the second half of 2018.
Finally, scandal-hit Ted Baker also managed to shake off its recent trend of heavy declines after it confirmed the appointment of an independent law firm to carry out an investigation into reports of "forced hugging" by founder and chief executive Ray Kelvin, as it posted a dip in revenues in the 16 weeks to 1 December.
Market Movers
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,785.79 -2.66%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Genus (GNS) 2,440.00p 5.45%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 188.40p 2.42%
Ted Baker (TED) 1,485.00p 1.23%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 1,388.00p 1.02%
F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd. (FCPT) 132.80p 0.45%
Vietnam Enterprise Investments (DI) (VEIL) 462.00p 0.43%
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 301.10p 0.37%
NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP (NBLS) 89.66p 0.29%
Derwent London (DLN) 2,856.00p 0.28%
Intu Properties (INTU) 111.05p 0.09%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 29.86p -13.20%
Indivior (INDV) 82.78p -11.62%
Premier Oil (PMO) 67.05p -10.18%
Spirent Communications (SPT) 118.85p -7.29%
Rotork (ROR) 236.30p -6.97%
Sanne Group (SNN) 554.00p -6.58%
AA (AA.) 81.08p -6.42%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,349.50p -6.02%
Investec (INVP) 439.30p -5.95%
Just Group (JUST) 81.50p -5.83%