FTSE 250 movers: WH Smith rallies on acquisition; Hunting gushes lower
London's FTSE 250 was up 0.8% to 18,708.18 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
WH Smith was the standout gainer after announcing the acquisition of US airport retailer InMotion for $198m (£155m).
RBC Capital Markets said the deal makes a lot of sense strategically for the company, as although the US travel retail market can be more challenging to operate in, it is a large and growing market, underserved by strong travel retailers like WH Smith.
Online trading platform IG Group was a higher as it appointed former Verifone executive June Felix as its new chief executive officer with immediate effect.
Felix was president of Verifone Europe and Russia until the recent sale of Verifone Inc. Prior to that, she held various executive management positions at a number of large multinational businesses, Including Citibank and IBM.
Housebuilder Crest Nicholson rose in line with its FTSE 100 peers after Philip Hammond announced in Monday's Budget that the Help to Buy scheme, which had been due to end in March 2021, will be extended to March 2023, under more restrictive terms.
Help to Buy will be restricted between 2021 and 2023 to first-time buyers only and will be restricted to houses with lower selling prices than before.
Canaccord Genuity said: "This extension to Help to Buy should be welcome news as it removes the uncertainty and looks supportive; particularly given the ongoing macro uncertainty around Brexit.
"The extension provides more visibility out to 2023, avoids a cliff edge removal and the non-first time buyer use of HtoB should be able to be comfortably managed by industry and the mortgage market."
On the downside, Hunting fell after the energy services group said North American third-quarter revenues were steady as shale oil production continued, but warned that geopolitical tensions were hitting US offshore and international markets.
Power plant operator Drax was under the cosh as Jefferies downgraded the stock to 'hold' from 'buy'.
FTSE 250 - Risers
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,859.00p 7.21%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 611.50p 5.25%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 503.60p 4.89%
Kier Group (KIE) 892.00p 4.33%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,272.00p 3.92%
Thomas Cook Group (TCG) 46.53p 3.91%
IWG (IWG) 242.70p 3.67%
Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 402.80p 3.28%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 340.00p 3.22%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,834.00p 3.18%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Hunting (HTG) 665.50p -4.59%
Inchcape (INCH) 509.00p -3.23%
Drax Group (DRX) 398.20p -2.74%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 464.00p -2.62%
Premier Oil (PMO) 101.90p -2.58%
Softcat (SCT) 683.00p -2.43%
Hill & Smith Holdings (HILS) 978.00p -2.20%
On The Beach Group (OTB) 412.06p -2.12%
IP Group (IPO) 105.20p -2.05%
Just Group (JUST) 88.90p -2.04%