Travel-related and homebuilders’ shares paced gains on London’s second-tier index on Wednesday, helped by growing confidence that UK authorities had the pandemic increasingly under control.
It was a somewhat similar story as regards the outlook for the Continent, with analysts at Pantheon Macroeconomics telling clients the recent acceleration in vaccine rollouts meant that Brussels’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the European Union’s population by summer was now possible.
Be that as it may, while the daily number of infections in the UK was continuing to plummet, in many European countries they were again rising.
In any case, shares of CineWorld, Carnival, and FirstGroup were all near the top of the leaderboard.
Real estate and homebuilders’ shares including those of Hammerson, Crest Nicholson, Countryside Properties, Bellway, Grafton Group were all higher too, after the Chancellor extended the stamp-duty holiday in his latest Budget.
Market Movers
FTSE 250 (MCX) 21,436.32 1.22%
FTSE 250 – Risers
Micro Focus International (MCRO) 498.30p 13.61%
Cineworld Group (CINE) 113.20p 8.76%
Hammerson (HMSO) 31.34p 8.24%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 363.80p 7.90%
4Imprint Group (FOUR) 2,555.00p 7.11%
Carnival (CCL) 1,748.50p 7.04%
Liontrust Asset Management (LIO) 1,345.00p 6.80%
FirstGroup (FGP) 90.90p 6.74%
Countryside Properties (CSP) 511.00p 6.65%
Bellway (BWY) 3,186.00p 6.26%
FTSE 250 – Fallers
Hiscox Limited (DI) (HSX) 871.00p -11.84%
Renishaw (RSW) 6,280.00p -8.99%
Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust (USA) 335.00p -4.01%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 260.40p -2.94%
Indivior (INDV) 122.90p -2.31%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 5,200.00p -2.26%
Just Eat Takeaway.Com N.V. (CDI) (JET) 6,768.00p -2.05%
Provident Financial (PFG) 266.80p -2.05%
Drax Group (DRX) 381.40p -1.86%
Capita (CPI) 47.79p -1.78%
