London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.3% at 22,908.64 in afternoon trade on Monday.
NCC Group surged to the top of the index after broker Peel Hunt hiked its price target on the stock to 363p from 325p, arguing that the cybersecurity company is emerging “triumphantly” from Covid-19 headwinds.
Housebuilders Crest Nicholson, Redrow and Bellway all gained on the back of an upbeat sector note by Liberum. They were also lifted by the latest Halifax survey, which showed that house prices hit another record high in May, with annual growth up 9.5%. On the month, house prices were up 1.3%.
Workspace provider IWG tumbled as it warned that underlying profit for 2021 was set to be “well below” the previous year’s level due to Covid-related restrictions in some of its markets.
The company said that while it has continued to see strong recovery in some of its markets since the first-quarter update, the overall improvement in occupancy across the group has been lower than expected due to the prolonged impact of lockdown restrictions and the emergence of new variants of Covid-19 in some markets.
Precious metals miners Hochschild and Centamin lost their shine as gold prices fell.
FTSE 250 – Risers
NCC Group (NCC) 308.50p 6.38%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 462.60p 4.38%
Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) 1,572.00p 3.42%
AJ Bell (AJB) 449.00p 3.03%
Redrow (RDW) 698.40p 3.01%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,130.00p 2.90%
Meggitt (MGGT) 514.40p 2.88%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 2,211.00p 2.69%
ITV (ITV) 131.00p 2.62%
Bellway (BWY) 3,678.00p 2.62%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
IWG (IWG) 338.50p -7.64%
Hochschild Mining (HOC) 191.00p -4.16%
Chemring Group (CHG) 309.50p -3.88%
Rank Group (RNK) 190.20p -3.65%
Energean (ENOG) 805.00p -2.84%
Avon Rubber (AVON) 2,872.00p -2.45%
888 Holdings (888) 395.60p -2.37%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 90.98p -2.21%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 113.00p -2.21%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 244.50p -1.81%
