London’s FTSE 250 was 0.8% firmer at 23,583.94 in afternoon trade on Tuesday.
Transport operator National Express was the standout gainer after it confirmed it was in talks about a possible merger with rival Stagecoach. Under the terms of the potential combination, Stagecoach shareholders would receive 0.36 new National Express ordinary shares for each of their ordinary shares, resulting in them owning around 25% of the combined group.
888 Holdings was also high riser as FTSE 100 peer Entain surged after confirming that it had received a takeover proposal from DraftKings, the consideration for which would include a combination of stock and cash.
The statement followed a report by CNBC earlier suggesting that DraftKings was making a $20bn offer for the online sports betting company.
Computacenter pushed higher after an upgrade to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ at UBS, which hiked its price target on the shares to 3,290p from 2,520p.
Oxford Instruments was up after it said trading for the full year was set to be “slightly” ahead of expectations amid a healthy pipeline.
On the downside, Imperial Leather maker PZ Cussons was on the back foot ahead of full-year results on Wednesday.
FTSE 250 – Risers
National Express Group (NEX) 244.20p 9.51%
888 Holdings (888) 446.60p 6.03%
Computacenter (CCC) 2,938.00p 4.93%
Reach (RCH) 369.50p 4.53%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 99.35p 4.52%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 66.72p 4.38%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 1,470.00p 4.26%
Britvic (BVIC) 918.00p 3.96%
TP Icap Group (TCAP) 166.72p 3.88%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,455.00p 3.81%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
Trustpilot Group (TRST) 363.20p -2.05%
Watches of Switzerland Group (WOSG) 986.00p -1.99%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 21.22p -1.94%
easyJet (EZJ) 641.60p -1.93%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 341.20p -1.84%
PZ Cussons (PZC) 229.50p -1.71%
BH Macro Ltd. GBP Shares (BHMG) 3,610.00p -1.63%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 374.40p -1.50%
Bytes Technology Group (BYIT) 523.00p -1.41%
SSP Group (SSPG) 278.20p -1.38%
