London’s FTSE 250 was up 0.9% at 20,986.67 in afternoon trade on Friday.
Beazley surged after it posted an annual pre-tax loss that was smaller than expected. The Lloyd’s of London insurer swung to a loss of $50.4m in the year to the end of December from a profit of $267.7m a year earlier as it was hit by $340m of losses from the pandemic, but this was better than consensus expectations for a $106.4m loss.
Derwent London was boosted by an upgrade to ‘outperform’ at Exane.
Pub group Mitchells & Butlers and transport operators FirstGroup and National Express were also sharply higher, likely on the back of vaccine optimism.
Signature Aviation was in the red after Global Infrastructure Partners teamed up with rival bidders Blackstone and Microsoft founder Bill Gates to make a $4.73bn (£3.43bn) bid for the company.
FTSE 250 – Risers
Beazley (BEZ) 371.00p 15.50%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 357.50p 10.17%
FirstGroup (FGP) 85.00p 8.56%
National Express Group (NEX) 304.40p 7.41%
Rank Group (RNK) 140.80p 5.39%
Virgin Money UK (VMUK) 162.20p 5.36%
Diversified Gas & Oil (DGOC) 123.40p 5.11%
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 479.20p 5.06%
Shaftesbury (SHB) 581.00p 4.68%
Derwent London (DLN) 3,274.00p 4.27%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
CMC Markets (CMCX) 420.00p -3.23%
Signature Aviation (SIG) 412.90p -2.89%
Homeserve (HSV) 1,042.00p -2.53%
Sirius Real Estate Ltd. (SRE) 90.50p -2.48%
Airtel Africa (AAF) 79.50p -2.45%
International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP) 172.00p -2.38%
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings (AML) 2,060.00p -2.28%
Victrex plc (VCT) 2,300.00p -1.63%
Plus500 Ltd (DI) (PLUS) 1,418.50p -1.42%
IG Group Holdings (IGG) 759.50p -1.36%
