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FTSE 250 movers: Stobart soars on Ryanair deal; Dixons down in the dumps
London's FTSE 250 was up 0.2% to 21,289.37 in afternoon trade on Wednesday as investors mulled over the latest UK inflation data.
Stobart Group was the standout gainer as budget airline Ryanair agreed to open a new base at its London Southend airport. The five-year agreement, extendable to ten, has been agreed on Stobart's standard commercial terms.
Ryanair plans to operate three planes out of the airport from summer 2019, carrying passengers on 13 routes to eight European countries, including six new destinations. At least 55 weekly flights will result in the need for 750 on-site jobs per year.
TalkTalk trotted higher on the back of a double upgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which reckoned guidance and consensus was achievable for the first time in four years.
The bank, which bumped the stock up to 'buy' from 'underperform' and hiked the price target to 190p from 140p, said that whereas TalkTalk has historically overpromised and under-delivered, new management and its "credible" simplification strategy can reverse that cycle.
On the downside, Superdry fell a day after RBC Capital Markets said that despite the significant de-rating year-to-date, it will continue to face challenges relating to channel cannibalisation, which is particularly apparent in its physical retail network.
The bank said in a note on Tuesday: "Consensus estimates remain elevated for FY19E onwards, and without any near-term catalysts in sight we believe the likelihood of earnings upgrades to be low, particularly on revenues."
Dixons Carphone was under the cosh after it said that the card data of 5.9m of its customers has been accessed by hackers, with records on 1.2m customers containing non-financial personal data also accessed.
Dixons said it had "no evidence of any fraud on these cards as a result of this incident", having immediately notified the relevant card companies of the data breach, as well as informing the police, the Information Commissioner's Office and Financial Conduct Authority.
Tate & Lyle retreated as Jefferies cut the stock to 'hold' from 'buy', while Domino's Pizza was weaker for the second day running after it announced the sudden departure of finance chief Rachel Osborne on Tuesday.
FTSE 250 - Risers
Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 257.50p 8.88%
TalkTalk Telecom Group (TALK) 124.30p 5.70%
FDM Group (Holdings) (FDM) 1,106.00p 2.79%
Games Workshop Group (GAW) 3,000.00p 2.74%
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 696.00p 2.65%
Charter Court Financial Services Group (CCFS) 334.45p 2.29%
Halfords Group (HFD) 347.20p 2.00%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,424.00p 1.97%
QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 272.80p 1.94%
Victrex plc (VCT) 3,102.00p 1.91%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Superdry (SDRY) 1,160.00p -4.92%
Alfa Financial Software Holdings (ALFA) 184.98p -4.15%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 191.35p -3.24%
Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 1,374.00p -2.97%
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 652.60p -2.60%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 352.20p -2.55%
GVC Holdings (GVC) 1,031.00p -2.27%
Lancashire Holdings Limited (LRE) 574.50p -2.13%
Serco Group (SRP) 101.70p -2.12%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,298.00p -2.05%